Meta blocks Albanian activist accounts amid protests over Kushner-linked resort project

Full text

Dozens of Instagram accounts linked to Albanian activists, journalists and an opposition party leader have been closed or disabled amid ongoing protests over a luxury hotel development linked to U.S President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Protests have been taking place in Albania for nearly 100 days over plans to develop a luxury resort along the southern coast in a project backed by Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, the U.S. president’s eldest daughter. The demonstrations, dubbed the Flamingo Revolution, have since evolved into a call for the entire Albanian government to resign.

Sandro Gozi, an Italian member of the European Parliament, denounced the blocking of the Instagram accounts. “When dozens of opposition and activist accounts linked to the same protest movement disappear almost simultaneously, we cannot simply treat it as a technical problem, ” said Gozi, European Democratic Party Secretary General and MEP for Renew Europe, said in a statement circulated to the media Thursday . “Meta must explain what happened, and it must do so quickly.”

Social media has played a crucial role in the protest, allowing citizens and journalists to report in real time from their own accounts, mobilize protesters, and document scuffles with police. But in the last few weeks, they have found themselves hit with copyright infringement notices, content takedowns, and account suspensions and closures.

Those affected insist they have not violated any of Instagram’s rules, yet received copyright infringement notices for content they filmed or created themselves. Digital rights NGO Repro Uncensored said it has reviewed hundreds of instances and observed no violations of Instagram’s community standards.

“Most cases follow the same pattern: accounts are targeted through repeat copyright infringement reports, and platforms restrict or disable them before establishing whether the claims are legitimate,” says Martha Dimitratou, founder of Repro Uncensored . “Some accounts have been repeatedly targeted, while replacement accounts created after suspension have also been deactivated.”

A Meta spokesperson said in emailed comments that they are reviewing the actions taken against the accounts but have already restored some that were removed by mistake. The parent company of Instagram and Facebook added: “We are sorry for the inconvenience caused,” and noted that Instagram has an appeals process in cases where people think their accounts have been erroneously blocked.

While some users’ access has been restored, others face limits on going live and collaborating with other creators, or experience “shadow bans,” in which their content’s distribution is limited to others, usually without notice.

Agron Shehaj, a member of the Albanian Parliament and the leader of the opposition Mundësia party, had his account disabled on Wednesday evening. “If the rules governing account suspensions and removals are not clear and transparent, the government has every opportunity to extend its censorship into social media, causing potentially irreversible damage to society,” he told POLITICO.

Shehaj said the platform’s rules were unclear, and such loopholes can easily be exploited by governments or those mobilized by them to silence critical voices. “And this is exactly what we are witnessing now: overnight, hundreds of accounts supporting the protests and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama have been shut down,” he said.

Rama reacted to the accusation on X : “So let me be absolutely clear: we have nothing whatsoever to do with any social media account being disabled or restricted, nor do we possess the technical capability to carry out an operation of this kind. Shame on this whole bunch of failures for spreading such nonsense.”

Digital repression

Others targeted by Meta include Arjan Koçi, an Albanian-British chef who uses Instagram to share drone footage — as well as his own videos and interviews — collecting more than 55 million monthly views. He said in written comments that at around 1 a.m. on Thursday, his account “Ari Shady” was closed, “without an email, without a warning, without any notice.”

“Then I looked for my other friends, and they were all banned at the same time, everyone, at 1 a.m.”

Journalist Alesia Burnazi said in a statement that Instagram is “the only medium where Albanians are sharing crucial information about the Flamingo Revolution,” calling it “a new era of digital repression.” She began having her original content removed and restrictions placed on her account on Aug. 19 after documenting protests for nearly three months.

Activists have accused the Albanian government for the suspended accounts, but Repro Uncensored said in its statement that it was unable to independently establish a link. But the NGO does suspect a “coordinated campaign to silence activists and remove critical political content from social media.”

Meanwhile, the European Democratic Party has sent a formal request for clarification to Meta, asking them to explain why accounts were suspended and closed, and whether this resulted from “coordinated mass reporting” or from “whether Meta detected organized attempts to manipulate its reporting mechanisms.”

Gozi, a prominent voice calling for more accountability from digital platforms, added: “This is particularly important in Albania, a country that wants to join the European Union,” he said. “EU membership is not only about economic integration: it means protecting democracy, the rule of law and the right of citizens and opposition forces to speak freely. We expect both Meta and the European Commission to take this case seriously.”

Gozi said he has also brought the matter before the European Commission through a parliamentary question seeking urgent clarification from Meta.

In his X statement, Rama also criticized Gozi’s party, calling their statements a “low form of propaganda” coming from “people parading as European Democrats.”