Expert: Party armies are manipulating the algorithm to quell youth protests on social media

The protest, which in its early days took over social media with creative banners, viral memes, and sarcastic messages from Generation Z, is recently facing a significant decline in viewership on digital platforms.

According to IT expert Nadia Elbasani, invited to the "Ora News" studio, this may not simply be an algorithm issue, but the result of an organized online "battle", where numerous profiles and content linked to political interests are influencing the distribution of information.

"Generation Z had all its creativity in this type of protest, with banners and memes, which created a lot of sensation. Sarcasm is one of the elements that attracts the most attention and this made everything go viral ," she said.

However, according to Elbasani, in recent days many users and influencers have reported that posts related to the protest are no longer receiving the same attention as they initially did.

She explains that one of the reasons may be the increased activity of what she calls the "digital army" of political forces.

" Don't forget that this protest targets the entire political class. And when a large group of people gets so much attention on social media, on the other hand there are sympathizers of each side who can create other profiles with the aim of mass production of content ," the expert said.

According to her, this strategy could directly impact how platform algorithms work.

" When a large number of posts are created, the algorithm no longer understands which content to favor. As a result, authentic protest videos do not receive the same visibility as in the early days ," Elbasani emphasized.

The expert added that there is no concrete evidence to claim that this is direct censorship, but suggested that the phenomenon be investigated through more in-depth analysis and cooperation with the platforms.

Another point she raised is related to the agreement reached between the Albanian state and TikTok after the application's return to the country.

" The agreement or negotiation that was made with TikTok has not yet been made public. That's where you can see if there are terms related to communication filters or how the algorithm works," she stated.

In the end, Elbasani advised protesters not to rely solely on algorithms, but to continue producing original and creative content.

"I would advise increasing creativity even more. This is the best way to keep the public's attention alive and not allow the message to get lost in the noise of social networks ," she concluded.