Following Gong's warning, TikTok removed the viral anonymous Ne Možemo (@nemozemo1) account, which, in addition to spreading critical narratives, disseminated numerous falsehoods. This behavior is not only unethical but also violates the Digital Services Act (DSA), which was enacted to ensure electoral integrity.
Today, Gong calls on the State Electoral Commission (DIP), HAKOM, and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to further investigate which political actors were behind the defamatory campaign on the Ne Možemo accounts on TikTok and Instagram. The goal is to prevent further negative influence on the outcome of the presidential elections.
As an organization committed to preserving electoral integrity, Gong alerted TikTok, DIP, and the national DSA coordinator, HAKOM, that the Ne Možemo TikTok account was conducting a shadow defamatory campaign against candidate Ivana Kekin. Gong urged them to investigate and remove illegal content from the platforms during the election campaign to safeguard the integrity of Croatia's presidential elections. While criticism is a normal and welcome part of campaigns, disinformation and defamation—particularly those coming from anonymous accounts—undermine the electoral process, open the door to illicit campaign funding, potential foreign influence, and threaten the integrity of elections, which is precisely why the DSA was adopted.
Through additional analysis conducted by Gong’s team, it was discovered that the problematic content from the recently removed TikTok account Ne Možemo is also being shared on Instagram through the Ne Možemo account (@nemozemo_platforma). The suspicion that political parties could be behind this defamatory campaign is based on individuals collaborating (via Instagram's "Collaborate" feature) on the controversial Ne Možemo content. A key co-author has ties to the ruling party.
We analyzed the use of the “collaboration” feature on Instagram with Ne Možemo content. Unlike the standard “Share post” option, this feature allows the original content creator to invite other accounts as collaborators or co-authors, as defined by Instagram. By accepting such an invitation, these accounts become collaborators or co-authors of the post, and the content is automatically published on their profiles, significantly enhancing its visibility and reach. This functionality is precisely why it is used on Instagram.
For key Instagram posts by Ne Možemo, one collaborator was Dominik Alpeza. A simple search revealed that Alpeza is a marketing professional and owner of Next Usluge, and his Facebook profile includes photos with the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and influential HDZ member Vladimir Šeks from April 2024. Earlier social media posts from 2014 show Alpeza as a member of the executive board of the HDZ Youth in Trešnjevka North, and in a 2013 YouTube video, he photographed his HDZ membership card, suggesting he is a member of the ruling party.
Three posts also featured Vinko Kojundžić as a collaborator, whom the media describes as the “favorite IT guy of Beroš,” referring to the former Minister of Health, who has been implicated in a corruption scandal and awarded Kojundžić several software development contracts. On one post, Neven Brnjas, a ZET unionist who previously ran on the Workers’ Front list, was also listed as a co-author. Brnjas now collaborates with Kojundžić on creating videos critical of governance.
The video falsely claiming that Ivana Kekin is hiding a villa—despite extensive reporting on the property since she became a Member of Parliament and its inclusion in her asset declaration in Istria—reached 140,000 views on TikTok as of Thursday. However, the post was first deleted from the account, and shortly thereafter, the entire Ne Možemo account was removed. Nevertheless, we archived the controversial post to ensure that the original creator—Ne Možemo—can be definitively identified. The archived post can be viewed below for verification purposes.
We call on the State Electoral Commission to investigate this case in order to prevent potential covert campaigns and hidden financing, which undermine electoral integrity and are prohibited by law. Current global events, such as the annulled elections in Romania, demonstrate the extent to which platforms can influence elections by spreading disinformation through anonymous accounts.
Let us recall that, ahead of parliamentary elections, Gong exposed a network of bots and reported them to Meta, which linked the inauthentic activity to the HDZ Youth and subsequently removed the accounts. However, the party itself faced no consequences, even though the use of inauthentic engagement in political campaigns is not only unethical but also violates the Digital Services Act. Such actions also raise serious questions about possible covert financing behind these operations.
