Albanian protest accounts disappeared from Instagram after reports. Activist claims the reporter received $1,800

Instagram has restricted or disabled dozens of accounts that documented the protests in Albania for three months, and removed videos from others. The nonprofit organization Repro Uncensored, which documents cases of digital censorship, speaks of a coordinated wave of copyright infringement reports. In one case, according to the organization, an affected activist claims that the person who filed the report admitted to receiving a reward of $1,800 in cryptocurrency. Repro Uncensored ↗

Prime Minister Edi Rama denies any government involvement and claims that Albanian institutions have neither the contacts nor the technical capacity for such an intervention. Meanwhile, the dispute has shifted from the platform to an argument with a European party over a single graphic. Euronews Albania ↗

Copyright reporting as leverage

Repro Uncensored published its findings on August 31. According to the organization, dozens of activists and civic platforms were affected, which together reach hundreds of thousands of people at home and in the diaspora. The pattern repeats: videos disappear in rapid succession, a single account receives several reports within minutes, and profiles created after a previous block become targets again. Copyright reporting, the organization says, is the least controlled and most easily abused part of moderation — both content and entire accounts can disappear before the platform verifies whether the person filing the report actually owns the material. Repro Uncensored ↗

Named cases include, for example, journalist Alesia Burnazi, whose Instagram began removing videos on August 19 after nearly three months of reporting from Tirana. Some of them were reinstated after Meta acknowledged the removal was a mistake. Activist Arjan Koci had his account with 40,000 followers blocked, as were the new ones he created afterwards. It is he, according to the organization, who claims that the person filing the reports admitted to him that they received a reward of $1,800 in cryptocurrency for the action against multiple accounts. The student platform Studentët Denoncojnë, with roughly 85,000 followers, has been unavailable since June 9. Repro Uncensored ↗

"Most cases follow the same pattern: accounts are targeted by repeated copyright infringement reports, and the platforms restrict or disable them before determining whether those claims are valid," says the organization's founder and executive director, Martha Dimitratou. According to her, platform infrastructure turns into a tool of censorship the moment a bad-faith actor can pay to have political voices erased. The organization explicitly adds that activists' suspicions of a link to the Albanian government have not yet been independently proven. Aside from acknowledging individual mistakes, Meta has not publicly explained the reasons for the actions. Repro Uncensored ↗

Lawmakers report blocked accounts

The matter gained political weight on Thursday, when independent MP Marjana Koçeku — until recently a member of the ruling Socialist Party — announced that more than 200 Instagram pages with content from the protests had been blocked. Among them is said to be the official page of MP Agron Shehaj, who leads the Mundësia party, and the account of IT specialist and activist Gent Progni. This is not a verified figure — Balkanweb counted 23 named profiles that day. Balkanweb ↗

"Our government fanatically defends this right at international forums, but at home it is trying to tear it down at any cost and by any means," wrote Koçeku, noting that online safety and cyberattacks against freedom of expression were, in those very days, the main topic for European commissioners at the Bled Forum. She added that she had already reported the matter to European Union institutions. Shehaj's party stated that the account disappeared without warning and that the MP is preparing legal action to restore it. Instagram has publicly said nothing about the reason for the block. Euronews Albania ↗

Student and activist Jurgen Shpërdhea, who has been at the protest since day one, described his case on News24 television. He says his account disappeared while he was working, and without the email about the possibility of appeal that Meta sends in such cases — the only message he received concerned a canceled payment for the blue checkmark. "We did not post any abusive material; at most we said the words 'civil disobedience,'" he said. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

The dispute shifted from the platform to a graphic

The European Democratic Party, a pro-European centrist grouping that is among the recognized European political parties, demanded an answer from Tirana. "Freedom of expression and political dissent are fundamental democratic rights. A country moving toward EU membership must protect every peaceful critical voice," it said in a statement. Its Secretary-General Sandro Gozi, an Italian politician who sits in the European Parliament for France, also asked Meta for an explanation and called for the European Commission to look into the situation. According to him, it cannot be explained as a technical glitch when dozens of opposition and activist accounts linked to the same movement disappear almost simultaneously. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

Rama responded on X. He called the European Democrats "agitators" spreading shameless insinuations and a low form of propaganda, denied any government involvement, and suggested that the campaign might be driven by "the same malicious sources" that, in his view, fueled the so-called flamingo revolution as well as the chaos in Spain's Ceuta. He said the protest had fizzled out anyway. Balkanweb ↗

Gozi publicly countered that his party had not accused the Albanian government of anything — it had asked Meta and called on the Commission to look into the matter. "Prime Minister Edi Rama, insults are not answers to questions," he wrote. Rama responded again early Friday morning: "No, this is yet another low. What I couldn't stand was your shameless visual insinuation, and the fact that you refuse to address it shows exactly what kind of democrats you are. I'm sorry!" The question of who coordinated the reports and who paid for them thus remains open, while the two sides argue over an image. Euronews Albania ↗

Why this is more than an Albanian affair

The protests began in late May against a luxury project worth €1.4 billion, planned for the protected coastline in the Zvërnec and Vjosa-Narta area and on Sazan island, backed by Affinity Partners, the firm of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the American president. An environmental objection turned into a movement against the government, corruption, and impunity. Activists say that precisely because of limited and hostile coverage in traditional media, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok became the main channel through which they document the protest and communicate with the foreign press and with European politicians. Repro Uncensored ↗

This is confirmed by an outside perspective as well. Lorin Kadiu, who runs the citizen news channel Citizens Channel and broadcasts from the protests on YouTube every evening, told the newspaper El Mundo that this is the longest and most intense demonstration since the fall of the regime in 1991. Direct police and institutional pressure is mild, he says, but "in parallel, another protest is being waged online," in which activists report constant cyberattacks and forced content takedowns. AP reporter Zana Cimili adds, for the same newspaper, that the government has not given the slightest sign that it is changing its stance, and that Rama continues to defend the project as the country's largest foreign investment. El Mundo ↗

Journalist and analyst Lufti Dervishi tells El Mundo that the government is banking on attrition — avoiding a direct response to political demands, defending the projects as legitimate investments, and counting on the leaderless movement to burn itself out. The most immediate pressure, he says, could shift from the street to judicial and institutional channels: the special prosecutor's office SPAK is already investigating the acquisition of land near Zvërnec, and the European Parliament has called for a moratorium on new permits and construction in protected areas until Albanian legislation is brought in line with EU standards. Albania, along with Montenegro, is among the most advanced candidates for EU accession. El Mundo ↗

Also read: How Le Monde sees the Albanian "flamingo revolution": after 65 days of protests, Rama still refuses to resign

The hundredth rally falls on Monday

Thursday was the 96th day of the uprising. People gathered at Skanderbeg Square, marched to the government office and from there to the so-called Security Bloc, the district around the government buildings, where in front of police station number 3 they demanded the release of those detained during the September 1 protest. On Friday, the 97th day, they were to meet at ten in the morning in front of the court and again in the afternoon in front of the government office. Balkanweb ↗

Attention is focused on Monday, September 7, when the protest will reach one hundred days and organizers want to surround the entire government office building. For Saturday, September 12, activist Artan Daci announced from London the arrival of a diaspora convoy and called for civil disobedience that is to remain peaceful. Neither Slovak nor Czech media have written anything so far about this wave of censorship or about the hundredth day itself — over the past three weeks, not a single headline about the Albanian protests appears in their output. Balkanweb ↗

Photo: Protest march on Dëshmorët e Kombit boulevard in Tirana on June 21, 2026, with a banner reading "New Albania" and a sign calling for prison for both Rama and opposition leader Berisha. Author Albinfo, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. The image has been resized.