Covert Facebook Network Found to Be Targeting Romanian Voters

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-09/covert-facebook-network-found-to-be-targeting-romanian-voters

by alexqaws

13 comments

  1. Meta Platforms Inc. allowed a network of Facebook pages to post more than 4,100 political ads attacking Romania’s pro-EU presidential candidate Elena Lasconi and promoting far-right figures, including Calin Georgescu, in the run-up to the country’s elections, a report showed.

    The campaign was run across 25 seemingly separate Facebook pages for entities whose websites share hosting, advertising and email infrastructure, indicating an organized effort to influence the election, according to a report by the digital threat research groups Reset Tech and Check First. It’s not clear who was behind the network, which boosted political posts on Facebook and Instagram with advertising spending of as much as €264,909 ($279,610), according to the report.

    The shock victory of the pro-Russia, TikTok-loving Georgescu in Romania’s now-abandoned Nov. 24 presidential election has put the role of social media companies under intense scrutiny. Romanian authorities have focused on ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, accusing the platform of providing “massive exposure and preferential treatment” to the previously little-known nationalist candidate. But the report by Reset Tech and Check First indicates a wider effort to influence the outcome of the election.

    Romania’s top court on Dec. 6 annulled last month’s first-round vote over allegations of meddling by Russia, the first such ruling in the nation’s history. It followed the release of declassified documents by the country’s intelligence service showing how Georgescu’s TikTok-fueled campaign may have been coordinated by foreign “state actors.” One document said that Romania was a target for “aggressive Russian hybrid attacks.” Moscow has denied any interference.

    “While TikTok’s role in amplifying disinformation during the Romanian election campaign has been in the spotlight, new evidence shows that Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram were leveraged to spread aggressive political messaging, unverified claims, and polarizing narratives,” wrote the authors of the report.

    Meta declined to comment on the contents of the report but pointed to comments made by Nick Clegg, president of global affairs, last week. “⁠We are not seeing any evidence of major incidents on our platforms in Romania,” he told journalists, adding that the company had been in “almost daily” contact with Romanian authorities, Euronews reported.

    The ads described in the report depict Georgescu, who has declared no campaign funding to authorities, as a “president patriot” defending the nation of about 19 million people against the political establishment. Save Romania Union leader Lasconi was characterized as a “devil” and a puppet for the West, while incumbent Klaus Iohannis was described as a “dictator” for his support of Lasconi. Some of the ads also expressed backing for George Simion, leader of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians party.

  2. In case anybody thought that only Tik Tok is to blame for the massive disinformation campaign, Facebook and Instagram were also heavily used.

  4. Reporting so far mostly focused on TikTok, but the misinformation has not been limited to just TikTok. Personally I had been bombarded with ads to fake news websites on Instagram and continue receiving them despite reporting the misinformation every time

  5. Listen, we need to stop using foreign social media platforms in our countries…

  6. Until the company CEOs are jailed for election interference or fraud it will just be all denials and playing stupid about how their platforms are being used during elections across the world. We know what’s happening, Cambridge analytica showed us this 8 years ago!

  7. Lovely that you find these 4000 ads, but there are literally tens of millions of posts, reels and comments… that you don’t find.

  10. Maybe social media should be banned from posting anything political one week before election and held accountable if they fail to block it

  11. Thats bad, but not as bad as in Bulgaria where our facebook is moderated by Telus, a Russian company lol

  13. I keep repeating myself but we need European social media…

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