One of the features that have accompanied the protests that have been going on for several days in Tirana, in addition to calls for the removal of the government, has been violence against private businesses and the destruction of public property. Dozens of kiosks and other businesses in the capital have been attacked or burned by protesters, while acts of vandalism have also been registered against public property, where traffic lights, protective barriers for pedestrians have been destroyed and trash cans have been burned. Private vehicles were also damaged and some of them were set on fire.
After a few days of calm, it seems that calls have started again on social networks that may warn of another wave of attacks and destruction against private businesses.
This time, the Kastrati company’s fuels are targeted. An Instagram profile with the name “Antidroga” has published photos of a State Police autobot, refueling at one of this company’s gas stations in the Sauk area. “Kastrati supplies water for free to the autobots that attack the protesters”, is written in a post from this profile. In fact, Kastrati does not sell water, but oil and police vehicles are supplied there, like any other state administration vehicle, since the businessman next to Edi Rama owns the tender for this work. But “Antidrug” is interested in saying that Kastrati sells water, in order to manipulate the protesters against whom the police use the autobot that throws water under pressure.
In addition to the photographs, the administrators of this profile call on the protesters to take a “tour” of the gas stations in Kastrati. A wording that, in the context of protests and previous acts of violence, is interpreted as an incitement to attack the company’s fuel supply points.
Instagram has also become one of the main platforms where fake news, unconfirmed information and messages that incite hatred towards the government and state institutions are constantly spread. Despite the spread of these contents, the lack of visible measures on the part of the company META, which manages the platform, to curb the spread of misinformation and calls that may incite violence is striking.
Such an attack on fuels, if it were to materialize, would be a great danger for Tirana and the citizens, knowing the danger of the points where oil, gas and gasoline are sold.
