‘Untold Story’: Dark Money, Israeli Advisers and an Albanian Election

The video was a crude example of a 'deep fake', a video that portrays someone saying something they didn't. And it was not the only political attack ad run by Untold Stories of Albania and targeting Basha and other opposition leaders before the April 25 vote that was won by the ruling Socialist of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

In fact, the page ran a total of 218 political ads from between December and the eve of the vote, registering millions of views. With the Socialist victory secured, it stopped posting.

Its disclaimer states that the adverts were paid for by Untold Stories of Albania, but no such entity exists and the Ad Library report published by Facebook gives no clue as to who owns the page and who or what funds it.

Using Facebook data obtained via Crowdtangle, an application owned by the social media giant, BIRN was able to identify five similar Facebook pages that registered tens of millions of video views ahead of the Albanian election but have only a few thousand followers.

Since the funding source for such ads is not known, the money is a form of political spending often referred to as 'dark money'.

Such anonymity encourages political actors to push the boundaries of democratic norms, said Anthony Nadler, associate professor of Media and Communications Studies at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania.

"When the source of funding behind an ad campaign is not identified, there's no one to fear being held accountable if ads are manipulative, foster hatred, or spread misinformation," he said.

"In addition, dark money allows for advertisers to engage in efforts to impersonate other interest groups, perhaps for the purpose of spurring division or misdirection among their opponents."

BIRN tried without success to...