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BIRN: Facebook profiles from Vietnam flooded Rama's interview on the show

Politiko 2025-05-10 13:30:17

BIRN: Facebook profiles from Vietnam flooded Rama's interview on the show

Hundreds of commentators, apparently from Vietnam, were engaged in watching the live interview of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his staff on Friday on Opinion by journalist Blendi Fevziu, while almost automatically commenting on messages apparently in favor of the "Together Movement".

"If you want change and are with the true left, vote for number 2, Arlind Qori," wrote Ngô Thương, from Vietnam. A message that was replicated by dozens of similar profiles. Rama's page also received over 1,000 reactions expressing anger, also from profiles from Vietnam or other Asian countries.

However, the Together Movement categorically denied being connected to the attack and called it an attempt by opponents to smear it. “We do not do such things, much less pay for fake profiles. Our activists only comment with their own profiles. Apparently this is an attempt by our opponents to smear us,” Arlind Qori told BIRN.

BIRN: Facebook profiles from Vietnam flooded Rama's interview on the showBIRN: Facebook profiles from Vietnam flooded Rama's interview on the showBIRN: Facebook profiles from Vietnam flooded Rama's interview on the show

The Prime Minister's Office and the Socialist Party did not respond to questions for comment on whether this strange method was used to increase engagement on the live video, nor did they take a position regarding the campaign that lasted more than an hour during the interview.

BIRN found in a previous investigation that such a scheme to increase engagement on social media was present on the Team Edi Rama page, which despite an insignificant number of followers reached 1.6 million viewers with its videos.

In addition to this page, dozens of other similar ones on Facebook and Instagram have engaged in recent weeks in what communication experts describe as electoral campaigns by "third parties" - social profiles that are not formally affiliated with political parties, but that clearly spread electoral messages during the campaign, which in many cases target political rivals with derogatory content.

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