The confrontation that began in the streets with protests dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution” quickly spread to social media, where activists, journalists and opposition representatives faced coordinated efforts to diminish or silence their voices.

Since the beginning of June, activist and communications expert Alesia Burnazi has turned her Instagram profile into an information channel reporting from Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard in Tirana.

Equipped with a mobile phone and a small lapel microphone, she began broadcasting developments from the “Flamingo Revolution,” seeking to fill, at least in part, the information vacuum caused by the boycott by traditional media.

Her live reports attracted a new audience on Instagram. To provide the broadest possible view of the protest, Burnazi often climbed onto concrete blocks or flowerpots placed along the boulevard.

However, hostile reactions against her soon began.

At first, government representatives and anonymous profiles accused her of manipulating videos to make the number of protesters appear larger than it actually was. Burnazi describes the claim as ridiculous.

At the end of August, Instagram deleted ten videos containing footage of the protest, claiming they infringed copyright. On September 3, without providing any explanation, the platform disabled her entire account.

According to Burnazi, the action amounted to a direct attack on independent journalism and freedom of expression.

The “Flamingo Revolution” began spontaneously in opposition to the government’s plans to build a massive tourist resort in the protected area of Zvërnec.

Within a short period, it grew into the largest anti-government protest in Albania since the fall of the communist regime in the early 1990s.

The confrontation, however, was not confined to squares and boulevards, as another front opened in the virtual space of social media platforms.

Data collected by BIRN show that a range of mechanisms were deployed during the marathon protests to weaken critical voices. These included hundreds of anonymous accounts, Artificial Intelligence, deepfake technology and sophisticated censorship operations that affected dozens of activists, journalists, opposition politicians, civic platforms and the Instagram profiles of major media outlets.

“Repro Uncensored,” a global organization that monitors digital censorship targeting freedom of expression, considers the “Flamingo Revolution” the clearest example of an attempt to silence critics within a society. However, those responsible for these actions remain unidentified.

Martha Dimitratou, executive director of “Repro Uncensored,” says Albania may represent the clearest case documented by the organization, but the problem is not limited to a single country.

According to her, if coordinated groups manage to exploit platform mechanisms to remove activists, journalists, major media outlets and elected representatives from public debate, this creates a model that can be replicated in any country. Dimitratou views this as a negative development for democracy, not only in Albania but more broadly.

Artificial Intelligence as a double-edged tool

The “Flamingo Revolution” is unfolding in Albania at the same time as the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence. Activists have made extensive use of the technology to create satirical material and creative content aimed at the old political class, which has dominated the country for the past three decades.

But the use of AI has revealed two sides, as the same technology has also been exploited to spread disinformation and false claims about the protest and its participants.

Through online research, BIRN identified dozens of cases in which fake content produced with Artificial Intelligence was circulated and then amplified by anonymous pages or profiles.

Cybersecurity expert Besmir Semanaj also confirms this trend, noting that AI systems have ranked the “Flamingo Revolution” among the main developments in Albania.

Semanaj, who supports the protest, explains that Artificial Intelligence has become part of online communication surrounding it, particularly in the creation and processing of materials.

He calls for a distinction between the use of AI for communication and content production and its use as an instrument of censorship or attacks against protesters. According to Semanaj, protesters use the technology for creative purposes, while the government uses it for disinformation.

Digital policy expert Alba Brojka offers a similar assessment. She says Artificial Intelligence has been used by both sides, but not for the same purposes.

According to Brojka, the use of AI during the protest has been widespread. This is linked not only to the choice of protesters and other actors to use it, but also to the global trend in this direction.

She draws attention to the dissemination through communication channels of falsified deepfake images used to promote the narrative that foreign actors had intervened in the protest.

Brojka cites the photograph that purportedly showed people arriving by bus from Greece. According to her, the image was a deepfake published specifically to influence public opinion and support a narrative and argument circulated both by the government and by supporters of the other, non-protesting camp.

Beyond deepfakes, disinformation and digital attacks, Brojka identifies a broader problem: a gap in legal regulation. According to her, Albania does not have a comprehensive regulatory framework to ensure transparency and accountability regarding how these systems are used.

She emphasizes that the use of AI is currently addressed only in the 2022-2026 national digitalization strategy, while the country still lacks a dedicated Artificial Intelligence strategy.

Two draft laws in this field have also been submitted for consultation. However, as long as no legislation has been adopted, ensuring transparency over the use of Artificial Intelligence remains difficult.

Account suspensions and censorship on digital platforms

In the first days of September, Meta shut down dozens of Instagram profiles without warning. The affected accounts included those of activists, journalists and opposition representatives, as well as the pages of Euronews Albania and Citizens.al.

“Repro Uncensored” has been able to verify at least 70 cases, all linked to the “Flamingo Revolution.” The organization estimates that the actual number could be several hundred.

The Albanian government has rejected the possibility that it was involved in these actions. Dimitratou also explains that investigations conducted so far have produced no concrete evidence linking the government or any public institution to the campaign.

Despite this, the identified elements show signs of a coordinated attack. All confirmed cases are linked to the same protest, copyright infringement complaints were repeated within short intervals and, after the original accounts were disabled, the profiles that replaced them were also targeted.

Dimitratou told BIRN that the organization had obtained communications in which a person filing reports admitted receiving $1,800 in cryptocurrency to target several accounts. A telephone number registered in the United States of America was used for this activity.

Those affected suspect that the operation may have been politically motivated. However, according to Dimitratou, investigations are continuing to determine who commissioned and financed the removal from Instagram of accounts supporting the protest.

The concern is not limited to identifying those responsible, nor solely to the Albanian case.

Dimitratou is calling on Meta not to view these events as isolated errors in enforcing its rules, but as part of a coordinated scheme. According to her, the company should preserve all relevant data and investigate who commissioned and financed the reporting operation.

She warns that, in the absence of transparency, genuine safeguards and accountability, platform infrastructure could become a ready-made instrument for targeting the political opposition, independent journalism and democratic participation.

Semanaj also interprets the disabling of Instagram accounts as organized targeting aimed at suppressing critical voices supporting the “Flamingo Revolution.”

In addition to the technical dimension, he also highlights the stark difference in the response of state institutions when government interests are affected, compared with cases in which its critics are targeted.

Semanaj describes the government’s double standard as troubling. He recalls that when Google reviews affected businesses close to the government, institutions became involved and Google was contacted. By contrast, after protesters’ accounts were shut down, he says no action was taken, and Rama merely stated that “we did not do it.”

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