When the Algorithm Becomes the Most Powerful Manipulator: The Case of the Tirana Protests

By Prof. Assoc. Dr. Bledar Kurti

In modern democracies there exists a great paradox. Today we believe that politicians shape public opinion, when in truth it is increasingly the algorithms that shape both politicians and crowds.

If the road to power once ran through parties, television stations and institutions, today it runs through a mathematical formula written on the servers of giant technology companies.

The algorithm does not vote. It does not run for office. It does not hold press conferences. And yet every day it decides what we will see, what we will get angry about, whom we will admire and whom we will hate.

In economics it is said that “demand creates supply.” In the digital age the opposite happens: the algorithm creates demand. Social platforms were not designed to reward truth. They were built to maximize the time a user spends on the screen. Every additional second translates into advertising, revenue and profit.

That is why the algorithm does not reward calm. It does not promote balanced argument. It does not favor academic analysis. It rewards anger. It promotes conflict. It multiplies emotion. Because emotions produce clicks. Clicks produce money.

This is no longer theory. Studies published in the scientific journal PNAS have shown that the algorithms of social platforms can amplify political content asymmetrically, directly influencing what citizens see on their screens.

Likewise, other research on democracy and social networks argues that platforms are no longer mere mirrors of public opinion, but actors that can themselves influence the democratic process.

International examples abound. The Cambridge Analytica scandal showed that millions of Facebook profiles were used to build personalized political messages during the American elections and the Brexit referendum.

In the United States, studies in recent years have raised questions about how the algorithms of TikTok or X (formerly Twitter) favor or amplify certain types of political content.

In France, Germany or Italy, parties now have entire teams that no longer analyze only the polls, but also the way platform algorithms function.

Politics no longer asks only “what do citizens think?” It increasingly asks: “What will the algorithm like?”

In this context, protests too are no longer merely physical events.

They are also algorithmic events.

A protest with few participants but thousands of viral videos can create the perception of a much larger movement. Conversely, a mass protest that fails to penetrate social networks can appear as though it never existed at all.

The case of the recent protests in Tirana is illustrative of this new reality. Beyond the political debate over the causes and demands of the protesters, an important part of the public discussion has centered precisely on the role of algorithms, social networks and the attention economy in the spread of messages, mobilization and the public perception of the protests.

Prime Minister Edi Rama has described this phenomenon as a “digital cyclone,” arguing that algorithms favor conflict and anger, while critics have countered that algorithms do not create discontent, they merely amplify it.

The truth is that yes, the algorithm does create discontent and manages to multiply it. A single emotional video can be seen by millions of people within a few hours. A provocative statement can dominate the national debate. A slogan can become a political identity.

This is why today it is no longer enough to win the hearts of citizens.

You must also win the algorithm.

And here arises the greatest danger for democracy.

If politicians begin to speak only of what the algorithm rewards, then politics loses its representative function and turns into an attention industry.

Decisions are no longer made on the basis of analysis. But on the basis of engagement. Not of truth. But of virality. Democracy is not measured by the number of likes. Nor by views on TikTok. Nor by shares on Facebook.

It is measured by citizens who think critically and by institutions that make decisions based on facts, not on the trends of the algorithm.

In the end, the challenge of the twenty-first century is not only to protect democracy from propaganda. It is to protect it also from the invisible mathematics that decides every day what we will see, what we will believe and, perhaps, even how we will vote.

The case of the Tirana protests is the clearest illustration of how this invisible mathematics manages to create pathways toward anarchy and attempts to overthrow the constitutional order. The use of emotion rather than reason to undo the majority, the opposition, the parliament and the judiciary leads to nothingness and violates the fundamental constitutional principles of a republic. And what happens next? What Socrates called the “Ship of Fools.” On a ship in the middle of the sea, the helm is taken not by the one who knows how to steer and bring the vessel to shore, but by someone without experience, a demagogue or a comedian, in this case a product of the algorithm, who smashes the ship against the rocks.

An even more complex dimension is the interference of foreign actors in this digital ecosystem. Today it is no longer necessary to finance traditional media or send agents of influence into the field. It is enough to understand how the algorithm works. Through coordinated networks of accounts, targeted advertising, anonymous pages, paid “influencers” or disinformation campaigns, foreign state and non-state actors can amplify the existing divisions in a society, increasing polarization and distrust of institutions.

The documented cases of Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential elections, the disinformation operations uncovered by the European Union, as well as the influence campaigns attributed to actors from Iran and other countries, show that algorithms have become a new instrument of geopolitical competition. The objective is not necessarily to persuade citizens to believe a particular idea, but to sow confusion, deepen divisions and weaken faith in democracy.

Albania was visibly and significantly affected by this phenomenon. Our internal public debate took on enormous dimensions on social networks, allowing external actors to exploit it for their own strategic interests. A photo of a small Albanian girl, roughly six to eight years old, holding the red flag bearing the two-headed eagle on the boulevard of Tirana was posted and shared around the world by Iranian pages, accompanied by an anti-American message. Truth, it seems, has no value. Emotion, manipulation, echo, noise, conflict, destruction, division, war, these are what matter to the algorithm. Success through the ruin of people and of the state.

Defend the republic. Defend the constitutional order. Do not let the algorithm think in your place. Do not become part of the digital mob. Inform yourselves, doubt, verify and be citizens of critical mind. Democracy does not survive on viral emotions, but on free reason.

Republics are not toppled by weapons alone. They can also be weakened by the manipulation of the mind. Protect your most precious freedom: the ability to think for yourself. Do not be used. Be responsible citizens, because only free and healthy thought protects democracy.

“I think, therefore I am,” said Descartes. Think, and be. Free and responsible citizens who chase only after the truth. Veritas. The truth sets you free.

originally published by Argumentum.al