Different Ears, Different Lies: Why Disinformation Is Threatening Kosovo’s Future

In ethnically diverse societies, disinformation has become a powerful force, not only deepening existing divides but, in places with a history of ethnic conflict like Kosovo, strategically reinforcing divisive narratives and undermining fragile reconciliation efforts.

Definitions of the “truth” can evolve into rather philosophical conceptualizations of reality itself. In the context of (sometimes violent) clashes between communities, truthful reporting should be less abstract, aspiring to portray the incident as close to reality as possible. Consequently, this means portraying a holistic account of what happened, including multiple perspectives and adhering to observations rather than speculations.  

In the past, both Albanian and Serbian media outlets have not been too successful in doing so. Examples include the Mitrovica graduation clash, which Serbs framed as proof of their persecution by the Kosovo police, while the Albanian side used it as a prime example of a continuous lack of willingness to integrate and open provocation by Serbs.

Demonstrating how the same incident can become two completely different stories, Kosovo’s  media landscape, just like its citizens, is divided by language. That is the power and purpose of disinformation - different lies for different ears, designed to keep communities apart. This is not an accident. Disinformation is a strategic tool of digital warfare and oftentimes produced as part of a political agenda.

While large actors such as Russia have a strategic interest in influencing the region, local political elites also know how useful half-truths can be. One storyline feeds Kosovo Serbs with talk of erasure and victimhood. Another warns Albanians that aggression and betrayal are always around the corner. The message on both sides is the same: do not trust, do not compromise.

And the effect is deadly for politics. Every step of the EU-facilitated normalization dialogue is drowned out before it begins. A handshake in Brussels means little if, online, it is framed as humiliation. On Telegram, on TikTok, in partisan portals, any hint of compromise looks like defeat. Politicians learn the lesson quickly: resist loudly, block openly, and you will be rewarded with legitimacy at home. Cooperation, meanwhile, becomes treason.

This is why progress has stalled. Dialogue is not failing because people are uninterested. It is failing because they are primed to see it as betrayal. You can not build longlasting peace in an environment where disinformation shapes the verdict before the negotiators can leave the room.

More worryingly, the post-war generation, the children of the 2000s, are learning this script as if it were normal. Young people are told every day through memes, videos, and manipulated feeds that the other side can not be trusted. A high-school graduation parade becomes a national theater. A rumor online fuels chants on the street. A single altercation turns into weeks of outrage.

For those born after the war, the message is relentless: friendship is weakness, coexistence is betrayal, where you risk being branded as a traitor by your own community. Skepticism has become a social expectation. Democracy depends on young people believing that tomorrow can look different from today. But if youth inherit only suspicion and hostility, then division becomes the norm and polarization a permanent state.

That should alarm all of us, not just policymakers in Prishtina or Brussels. Because if Kosovo’s youth lose faith in empathy, there will be little democracy left to defend.

So what is there to be done? The problem will not be solved with wishful thinking or the occasional debunk. Disinformation is systematic, and the response has to be alike. Kosovo needs bilingual fact-checking platforms that reach Albanians and Serbs at the same time. It needs government spokespeople fluent in both languages, trusted across community lines. When an incident breaks, the facts have to land fast - before rumors become rallying cries.

At the local level, schools need media literacy courses so children do not remain easy prey for outrage. Municipalities should increase community round tables where Albanians and Serbs can actually compare how the same story is being told differently to each side. Civil society must aid in filling the silence with stories of cooperation, not crisis.

Without systematic change, however, these efforts will be band-aids on a deeper wound. Community discussions matter. Media literacy matters. Yet if governments do not build rapid response teams, and if newsrooms do not adopt rules requiring sourcing from both communities, lies will keep winning. Kosovo does not need to “win the internet.” But it must stop the internet from winning over its future.

Because the real danger is not only today’s manipulated headlines. It is tomorrow’s generation growing up believing they have no choice but to mistrust. And once that lesson is learned, democracy rarely gets a second chance.

________________Pia-Katharina Pallasch is a Maastricht University graduate, holding a B.Sc. in Global Studies. With a heightened interest in Security Studies, specifically in the dynamics of radicalization, populism, and extremism, Pia is currently interning at the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) in Pristina, Kosovo. Originally, Pia is from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.