{"id":14756,"date":"2026-07-17T10:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/?p=14756"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:42:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:42:06","slug":"political-crisis-elections-and-ai-manipulation-at-the-center-of-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/disinfo\/political-crisis-elections-and-ai-manipulation-at-the-center-of-disinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Political crisis, elections and AI manipulation at the center of disinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sbunker has published a new quarterly report as part of its Disinfo Program, presenting the main findings from the monitoring of Kosovo\u2019s information environment during the period April\u2013June 2026.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the information environment during this quarter was characterized by an intensification of disinformation narratives related to the political crisis, the extraordinary parliamentary elections, security issues and geopolitical developments. Institutional uncertainty and the election campaign were exploited to spread fabricated opinion polls, content taken out of context and unsubstantiated claims aimed at influencing voters\u2019 perceptions.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most concerning trends was the increased use of content generated with Artificial Intelligence. The monitoring identified manipulated photographs, videos and other materials that presented fabricated statements or events as authentic. These new forms of manipulation are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine and false content.<\/p>\n<p>The report also examines narratives portraying Kosovo\u2019s cooperation with NATO as preparation for new conflicts, unsubstantiated claims concerning amendments to the Law on Citizenship, and the instrumentalization of historical and identity-related issues to fuel polarization and distrust in institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside political and geopolitical disinformation, digital scams through SMS messages and phishing schemes also continued during this period, targeting citizens\u2019 personal and financial data.<\/p>\n<p>The findings show that disinformation in Kosovo is becoming increasingly complex, combining political propaganda, visual manipulation, generative technologies and digital fraud. In this context, strengthening fact-checking, media literacy and capacities for the early detection of AI-generated content remains essential for protecting information integrity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Full report: <a href=\"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Disinformation-Monitoring-ENG.pdf\">Disinformation Monitoring (ENG)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sbunker has published a new quarterly report as part of its Disinfo Program, presenting the main findings from the monitoring of Kosovo\u2019s information environment during the period April\u2013June 2026. According to the report, the information environment during this quarter was characterized by an intensification of disinformation narratives related to the political crisis, the extraordinary parliamentary [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":14758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[363,857,1243],"tags":[2577,2581,2580,673],"ppma_author":[961],"class_list":["post-14756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disinfo","category-punime","category-reports","tag-antidisinfo","tag-mediamonitoring","tag-narratives","tag-western-balkans"],"authors":[{"term_id":961,"user_id":432,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sbunker","display_name":"Sbunker","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sbunker-logo.png","url2x":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sbunker-logo.png"},"user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"Sbunker","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14759,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756\/revisions\/14759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14756"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=14756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}