Edi Rama Government Accused of Paying Up to €10,000 to Shut Down Protesters’ Instagram Pages

During the 88th consecutive day of protests in Tirana, one of the movement’s most active protesters, Ari, answered questions from Agron Shehaj about the alleged shutdown of Instagram pages supporting the demonstrations.

 A screenshot of the alleged conversation between a protester and a purported hacker, in which the latter admits to receiving payment to remove social media content related to the protests.

Ari said that his own Instagram page, which had around 50,000 followers and nearly 50 million views in one month, was blocked. But, according to him, he was not the only protester targeted.

Ari: Other Protesters’ Pages Were Also Shut Down

Asked by Shehaj about the case, Ari claimed that several other people involved in the protest movement had also had their Instagram pages closed.

He highlighted the case of a woman living in Canada, saying that the people behind the operation allegedly paid up to €10,000 to have her Instagram page shut down.

Ari also claims that the individual who targeted his account was a hacker allegedly paid to interfere with the platform’s systems, allegedly using manipulated copyright complaints to trigger the removal of his page.

Allegations of Paid Digital Censorship

According to Ari, the person involved allegedly communicated with him directly and apologized for shutting down his page, while claiming that he had been paid by the Albanian government.

The allegations have not been independently verified. However, if proven, they would raise extremely serious questions about the alleged use of paid intermediaries, technical manipulation and copyright mechanisms to silence political protesters online.

Ari's account reportedly reached tens of millions of views each month, giving the protest movement a significant digital audience.

The allegation that up to €10,000 was allegedly paid to remove a single protest-related page makes the case even more serious.

The Bigger Question

The issue is no longer simply whether an Instagram account was removed.

If the allegations are confirmed, they would point to a potentially organized effort to suppress political speech and disrupt the online reach of an opposition movement.

The central question now is straightforward:

Were government-linked actors paying people to shut down Instagram pages belonging to protesters—and, if so, how many accounts were targeted?

The Albanian government has not been independently shown to have ordered or financed these actions, and the claims should be investigated with technical and financial evidence. But Ari's statements on the 88th day of the protests have added a new and potentially explosive dimension to the allegations of digital censorship in Albania.