This report assesses the substance, scope, and trends of information disorders in Kosovo throughout 2023 - a year marked by significant political and security tensions for Kosovo. The report documents instances of information disorders spanning various media platforms and social networks. The report highlights domestic and foreign actors driving ethnic hatred, political propaganda, disinformation and other information disorders, which have increased interethnic tensions and undermined democratic process and social cohesion within Kosovo. 

Specific political events triggered information disorders that were widely shared during times of high social media engagement in Kosovo. Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia during 2023, including the elections boycotted by Kosovo Serbs in April, the violent clashes between protesters against the Kosovo Police and KFOR peacekeepers in May, detention of three Kosovo Police officers by the Serbian Police in June, as well as the armed attack against Kosovo Police in Banjska in September, were key events during which the information space in Kosovo was flooded with information disorders. As a consequence, the interethnic tensions in Kosovo significantly escalated, exacerbating the already fragile relations among Kosovo’s Albanian and Serbian communities. The escalation was partly fueled by the spread of information disorders, such as exaggerated accounts of violence in many media outlets, leading to fear mongering among the population, including exaggerated warnings of an imminent war between Kosovo and Serbia. 

This report explores how both traditional media outlets and online platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, and Telegram, have been weaponized to spread false narratives, manipulate public opinion, and intimidate individuals. It further explores the external influences that feed these information disorders, particularly focusing on Russian and Chinese state media's portrayal of the situation in Kosovo to serve their geopolitical and anti-democratic interests. The report reviews the emerging threat posed by deepfakes and AI-generated content in propagating information disorders, the role of bots in amplifying political messages, and instances of online misogyny and manipulated imagery to distort public perception. The report provides a stark overview of the challenges posed by information disorders in Kosovo, emphasizing the need for vigilance, critical media literacy, and robust responses to safeguard the media landscape and support information integrity. 

Throughout 2023, the highest trending topics were monitored by NDI on different social media/platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and Telegram. Out of the 4,859 articles and posts monitored, 996 of them were found to have information disorders. The articles and posts with information disorders generally had higher engagement (number of interactions in posts by social media users) and views, indicating the potential for higher impact that information disorders can have.