Meta disabled or restricted dozens of Instagram accounts belonging to Albanian activists, journalists and an opposition politician on the night of September 2, amid an ongoing protest movement against a EUR1.4bn ($1.51bn) luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner, Bytes Europe reported.
The accounts disappeared on the 96th day of the demonstrations, dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution”, which began in opposition to the resort development on Albania’s southern Adriatic coast and have since broadened into calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government, according to Bytes Europe. The project is being developed by Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, UA News reported.
Those affected said they had not violated any Instagram rules and instead received copyright infringement notices for content they had filmed or created themselves, eTurboNews reported. Meta has said some accounts were removed in error, according to the outlet.
Sandro Gozi, an Italian member of the European Parliament and secretary general of the European Democratic Party, criticised the timing of the removals. “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,” he said, cited by News.az. The European Democratic Party has also called on the European Commission to weigh the case as part of Albania’s EU accession process, according to Bytes Europe.
Agron Shehaj, an opposition leader whose account was among those removed, said unclear platform rules created room for exploitation. “[Such loopholes] can easily be exploited by governments or those they have mobilised to silence critical voices,” he said, cited by UA News.
Rama denied any involvement in the account suspensions in a post on X. “We have absolutely nothing to do with blocking or restricting any social media account, nor do we have the technical capability to carry out such an operation,” he said, cited by UA News.
The dispute over the resort has also involved an organised-crime and money-laundering investigation tied to a seller of land connected to the project, along with concerns that construction plans will affect an environmentally protected stretch of coastline, UA News reported.