U.S. tech giant Meta said on October 11 that it had removed a network of group accounts targeting Russian-speakers in Moldova ahead of the country's October 20 election after a U.S. senator called on the company to address Russian disinformation.
The parent company of Facebook said it removed seven Facebook accounts, 23 pages, one group and 20 accounts on Instagram for violating its policy against "coordinated inauthentic behavior."
SEE ALSO: EU's Von Der Leyen Urges Moldovans To Vote, Announces $2 Billion In AidThis network originated primarily in the Transdniester region of Moldova and targeted Russian-speaking audiences in Moldova, Meta said, adding that the accounts were removed before they were able to build authentic audiences on Meta's apps.
The individuals behind the activity used fake accounts to manage pages posing as independent news entities, post content, and drive people to the operation's off-platform channels, primarily on Telegram.
They posted original content, including cartoons, about news and geopolitical events concerning Moldova and supportive commentary about pro-Russian parties in Moldova. A small fraction of the posts referred to exiled oligarch Ihan Shor and his party.
Following Meta's actions authorities in Moldova said they had blocked dozens of Telegram channels and chat bots linked to a drive to pay voters to cast "no" ballots in a referendum on EU membership held alongside the presidential election.
Moldovans are heading to the polls on October 20 to decide whether they will grant a second term to pro-Western President Maia Sandu and have their say in a referendum on the former Soviet republic's integration into the European Union.
In letters to Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, the CEOs of the parent companies of Facebook and Google, Senator Ben Cardin (Democrat-Maryland), chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pointed to the importance of the two polls, which he called "a unique moment in Moldova’s history that will determine the future for generations of Moldovans," stressing that "the decision must be Moldovans’ alone.”
A former World Bank official, the U.S.-educated Sandu steered Moldova firmly toward the West after defeating Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in 2020 and moved to curb Russia's influence in one of Europe's poorest countries more than three decades after it declared independence from the Soviet Union.
Chisinau firmly condemned Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and joined the EU sanctions regime against the Kremlin while sheltering tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
Moldova secured EU candidate status in June 2022 and opened membership negotiations with the bloc earlier this year, steps that prompted Russia to step up a disinformation campaign to undermine the credibility of Moldova's government and portray Moscow as a better alternative for Chisinau's future.
Ahead of the elections, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a U.S. pro-democracy NGO, warned that foreign malign influence from Russia on social media platforms "is the greatest threat to electoral integrity" and recommended that social media companies move to prevent advertising from "sanctioned individuals or their proxies."
In his letters to Zuckerberg and Pichai, Cardin urged the two companies to "act without delay to allocate additional resources to support a fair electoral environment in the run-up to October 20" and pointed to a joint statement by the United States, Canada, and Britain warning in particular of Russian actors who intend to "incite protests in Moldova should a pro-Russia candidate not win."
SEE ALSO: Wider Europe Briefing: The EU's New Plans To Target Russian ThreatsCardin went on to warn the two tech giants that fugitive Moscow-backed oligarch Ilan Shor, who is wanted in Moldova for his role in the theft in 2014 of around $1 billion in banking assets and is under U.S. and EU sanctions, "has paid for sponsored ads on your platforms."
Cardin's letters came the same day that Moldovan police searched the homes of leaders of a group linked to Shor as part of a criminal investigation into election meddling. Three suspects were detained.
The whereabouts of Shor, who also holds Russian and Israeli passports, are not known, but he is believed to live in Moscow. His Facebook account was blocked this summer. Meta has so far also blocked the accounts of lawmaker and Shor-associate Marina Tauber and of Evghenia Gutul, the Russian-backed leader of Moldova's autonomous region of Gagauzia.
Cardin reminded the two IT giants that they have a responsibility in preventing "malign" outside involvement in the make-or-break elections.
“The gravity of this decision before the Moldovan people puts the onus on Moldova’s partners, as well as those who help moderate key parts of Moldova’s information space, to prevent malign foreign influence from interfering in one of the most important choices Moldovans will ever make,” Cardin concluded.