Meta has begun restoring Instagram accounts belonging to Albanian antigovernment protesters, which it suspended two days ago, including that of Agron Shehaj, member of parliament and leader of an opposition party.
Shehaj’s account was reinstated after 24 hours, and Meta is gradually restoring access to other affected activists.
Among them is Gent Progni, one of the organisers of the anti-government protests associated with the so-called Flamingo Revolution.
Speaking to Exit.al, Progni said his account had been restored but had lost its blue verification badge.
“I don’t know why my account was blocked, even though I asked Meta for an explanation. They simply restored my access after I appealed,” he said.
Progni described the suspension as unusual because he received no warning about any alleged violation. Meta also provided no explanation when it suspended the account or after restoring it.
Exit.al contacted Meta about the suspension of accounts belonging to protest activists in Albania.
“We reviewed the action we had previously taken against these accounts and restored those that were disabled by mistake. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. We have an appeals process that people can use when they believe we have made a mistake, allowing us to restore content if we determine that it does not violate our rules,” a Meta spokesperson said.
The suspensions sparked concern and debate on Thursday, not only in Tirana but also in Brussels.
They prompted a heated exchange between Prime Minister Edi Rama and the European Democratic Party (EDP), a grouping of centrist parties represented in the European Parliament.
In a social media post, the EDP called for “an immediate response from Edi Rama’s government and the Albanian authorities”.
“A country seeking to advance towards EU membership must protect every peaceful critical voice,” the group said.
Although the EDP has limited political influence in Brussels, its intervention drew an angry response from Rama on X.
The prime minister described the group’s statement as regrettable and accused its authors of engaging in a “low form of propaganda”.
Denying that his government had played any role in the suspensions, Rama wrote: “Shame on this entire bunch of losers spreading such nonsense.”
The EDP replied that “Prime Minister Rama’s insults did not answer the questions." It said it had simply asked Meta for transparency and called on the European Union to address the issue.
“In a democracy, asking questions is not agitation,” the group added.
The exchange did not end there. Shortly after midnight, Rama posted another response to the European MPs, this time objecting to the AI-generated image accompanying the EDP’s original post.
“What I loathed was your fearless insinuation through imagery, and the fact that you refuse to address it shows exactly what kind of democrats you are. What a shame!” Rama wrote.
The government may have had no involvement in the suspension of the protesters’ accounts. Questions nevertheless remain over why accounts belonging to protesters and anti-government activists were affected at around the same time.
Meta has acknowledged that the accounts were disabled by mistake, but it has not explained what caused the error or why the affected accounts appeared to be connected to the protest movement. The timing of the suspensions and the absence of a detailed explanation have fuelled suspicion, turning the incident into a sensitive issue beyond Albania.
The company said it had reviewed the suspensions, but it has not disclosed further details about its internal investigation.
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