Representatives of the “Flamingo Revolution” page, which has been documenting the protest through photos and videos for more than three months, say they first noticed the problem after several users informed them that they could no longer collaborate with the profile through the “collab” feature.

“We realized it in the morning, when some people sent us screenshots saying they could no longer do collabs with us. At first, we thought it was just a temporary ‘bug’,” the page representatives said.

Later that same day, they found that three posts had been removed from Instagram on the grounds that they violated copyright rules.

The administrators appealed the decisions and, after three or four days, some of the content began to be restored.

“Some of the posts started coming back, around 10 pieces of content that had been deleted in total. And we also got the possibility to do collabs back after four days,” they said.

The page representatives link the problem to the possibility of multiple reports being filed against their content.

“We think the reason this happened is because there may have been multiple reports, considering that the content we have shared is our own and was not taken from somewhere else,” the administrators said.

The case of the “Flamingo Revolution” page adds to a series of similar incidents reported by activists and other pages active during the protests.

Accounts targeted after protest content

Activist and reporter Alesia Burnazi, who has been covering the “Flamingo Revolution” protests for a broader international audience, says problems with her profile began on 19 August, when Instagram started removing videos she had posted from the protests. Her account was initially restricted and she could no longer use the “collab” feature. Later, she says, around 10 videos were removed, including personal and professional material, on alleged copyright grounds.

Among the removed videos, Burnazi highlights those related to the arrival of the Albanian diaspora and the intergovernmental conference with Marta Kos in Brussels. Following appeals, the videos were restored, but on 3 September her account was shut down completely.

“I could neither appeal Meta’s decision nor file a report. I had no official email from Meta/Instagram,” Burnazi says.

According to her, social media played a significant role during the protests, as they were used to share footage from the ground and inform citizens.

“This is digital censorship of free speech and independent journalism in Albania. I have been reporting in English since the first days of the Flamingo Revolution, at a crucial moment when traditional Albanian media chose to remain silent,” she said.

Another case is that of the “Studentët n’Protestë” page (students in protest, ndr). According to representatives of the group, the page initially experienced an unusual surge in followers.

“Our account was suddenly bombarded with an artificial influx of more than 2,000 fake followers on 12 August and more than 5,000 others on 13 August. By tracing the origin of this traffic, we discovered that it was being orchestrated through a platform called topfollowers.com. The aim was to compromise our page in order to trigger Instagram’s spam filters,” they said.

On 17 August, 13 posts were removed simultaneously over alleged copyright violations. The administrators say the material consisted of original footage they had filmed themselves during the protests.

“Meta did not send us any notification. […] Our only solution was to ‘manipulate’ artificial intelligence (Meta AI), asking it to find the deleted posts for us. Through AI, we managed to appeal the decisions and have them restored,” they told OBCT.

Following the appeals, the posts were restored. But on 29 August, the account was suspended entirely. After contacting Meta’s Human Rights and Safety teams and escalating the case to Repro Uncensored, the account was restored.

Repro Uncensored, an organization that documents digital censorship and helps restore accounts, says it has handled more than 50 Albanian cases connected to the “Flamingo Revolution.”

According to its founder and executive director, Martha Dimitratou, in addition to account shutdowns, other restrictions have been identified that affect how content reaches audiences.

“Overall, the affected accounts reach hundreds of thousands of people, who have now been prevented from accessing information shared by activists, journalists and protest organizers,” Dimitratou says.

Repro Uncensored has also documented cases of “shadowbanning”, reduced reach of content, as well as restrictions preventing accounts from collaborating with other profiles or using certain platform features.

According to Dimitratou, in the cases the organization has handled, the problem is not necessarily the content that was posted, but the way third-party reports are processed by the platforms.

In some cases, following intervention by Repro Uncensored, content was restored and Meta acknowledged that the removals had been made in error. The organization says it has found no evidence that the protest content it handled had actually violated copyright rules or platform policies.

“It can be alarmingly easy, particularly when automated reporting systems impose restrictions before properly verifying the claims,” Dimitratou says.

Repro Uncensored says it is investigating several of the cases to determine whether repeated reports against different accounts are part of a coordinated operation.

Media outlets also affected

Citizens.al, one of the media outlets that has closely covered environmental developments and, subsequently, the “Flamingo Revolution” protests since their first day, faced the shutdown of its Facebook page.

“The Citizens.al Facebook page was shut down without any prior notice,” the Citizens.al editorial team said, adding that this was not the first attack they had faced. Two years ago, the media outlet was targeted in another attack that affected its online platforms and official website.

Earlier, the official Instagram page of Euronews Albania had also been shut down. According to the outlet, the shutdown occurred shortly after it conducted an interview with MEP Sandro Gozi, who was speaking about the shutdown of Albanian accounts on social media.

The Albanian Journalists’ Association expressed concern over these developments.

“The successive shutdowns of media pages, at a time when problems have been reported with hundreds of Albanian accounts, can no longer be treated as an isolated incident or merely as a technical issue,” the Albanian Journalists’ Association said.

SafeJournalists and European Democrats call for investigation

The issue of the suspended accounts has also taken on an international dimension.

SafeJournalists and partners of the Rapid Response Mechanism for Media Freedom have called on social media platforms to protect media outlets and accounts of public interest from the coordinated manipulation of reporting mechanisms.

The organization has called on platforms to distinguish malicious reports from genuine violations, ensure that suspicious cases receive human review, and for Meta to investigate the use of mass reporting, bots and abuse of copyright enforcement mechanisms.

At the same time, the European Democrats (EDP) have asked Meta for explanations regarding the suspension of Albanian accounts linked to the opposition, activists and protests. EDP Secretary General and MEP Sandro Gozi has also raised the issue with the European Commission.

The EDP is asking Meta to clarify whether the suspensions resulted from coordinated mass reporting, automated moderation systems or attempts to manipulate reporting mechanisms. The party has also requested clarification as to whether Meta received any requests or communications from Albanian public authorities or political actors concerning the affected accounts.

In response to the EDP, Prime Minister Rama denied on the social media platform X any government involvement in the shutdown or restriction of the accounts.

“We have absolutely nothing to do with the deactivation or restriction of any account on social media, nor do we have the technical capacity to carry out such an operation,” Rama wrote.