Meta Faces Calls for EU Investigation After Albania Protest Accounts Are Suspended

European parliamentarians are calling for an investigation into Meta after a mass suspension of accounts posting about anti-government protests in Albania. Observers believe the suspensions may have resulted from a coordinated reporting campaign.

European lawmakers accuse Meta of censorship

“What happened in Albania amounts to censorship,” said parliamentarian Alexandra Gies in a statement.

Gies is one of more than 30 members of the European Parliament who signed a letter urging the European Commission to investigate whether Meta’s actions comply with the EU’s digital services law.

“Mark Zuckerberg’s understanding of ‘free speech’ seems to only cover opinions that align with the Trump administration’s political agenda. This is exactly why we have European rules,” Gies said.

Protest accounts targeted by copyright complaints

The Flamingo Revolution protests, initially sparked by a luxury resort development linked to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, have taken place daily in Albania’s capital for more than three months. Protesters are demanding changes to laws that allow development on protected land, as well as the resignation of the country’s prime minister.

The suspensions of Meta accounts appear to have been driven almost entirely by copyright infringement claims and appear to have begun in late August.

A group of NGOs investigating the mass account suspensions told WIRED there is strong evidence of organized activity behind the complaints.

“What immediately distinguished this from regular content moderation was the concentration of incidents surrounding the same political and civic movements,” said Martha Dimitratu, founder of Repro Uncensored, a nonprofit that tracks digital censorship.

In at least one case, a complaint was traced to someone who claimed to have been paid to file it.

At least 70 protest posts and videos reportedly removed

Dimitratu told WIRED that she had identified around 100 account restrictions related to the protests. “We continue to receive additional reports, and based on the volume and patterns we are seeing, we estimate the actual number may be in the hundreds,” she said.

“We’ve also found that multiple posts on an account can receive copyright infringement claims, receiving five to 10 claims in a relatively short period of time, followed by a gradual escalation of enforcement, sometimes resulting in the entire account being disabled,” Dimitratu said.

“Taken together, the alleged paid reporting, repeated copyright infringement claims and subsequent account enforcement, concentration of targeting of the same cause, and repeated targeting of alternative accounts strongly indicate coordinated activity,” she added.

Repro Uncensored found that nearly all affected accounts appeared to have been subject to copyright infringement reports. The group confirmed the deletion of at least 70 protest-related posts and videos, along with account restrictions and the loss of collaboration features.

“Targeted accounts collectively impact millions of people, meaning that if an account is restricted or deleted, millions of people could lose access to the news, political information, protest documents, and citizen voices they depend on,” Dimitratu said.

Protester says 20 accounts were closed at once

One protester told WIRED that the person who reported his account said he had been paid to carry out the attack.

On August 20, Arjan Koci began receiving a large number of emails from Meta. “Someone was claiming that I had stolen their work and published it as mine, but it was my video, my voice, my photos,” said Koci, a British-Albanian who has documented the protests on his Instagram account since June.

Koci’s aerial drone footage of a large-scale demonstration in Tirana received millions of views across platforms. “If we receive too many of these reports, Meta will restrict your account,” he said.

Around the same time, several other protesters faced similar reports against their accounts. “It was around 1 a.m. I know at least 20 accounts were closed at the same time,” Koci said.