The issue of polling stations for residents of the left bank of the Dniester, where the constitutional authorities of the Republic of Moldova have no control, sparked disputes and heated discussions in the second half of August and became one of the main tools for spreading disinformation in electoral context on Facebook. The narratives identified on 98 pages and public groups on Facebook, although presented in various forms – discrimination, “second-class” citizens, conspiracies related to Ukra...

The “parade” of fake news items on Telegram, which started in the first days of August, had its continuation. In the second half of the month, a new fake news item was launched every 2-3 days, appearing on several channels which had a mission of spreading it. Publishing videos with images and texts in English was a practice used more frequently than before: it was intended to suggest to our audience that foreign journalists were also writing about Moldova. In fact, either nothing was written on...

Every day, the Moldovan TikTok is “invaded” by manipulative or fake videos partially or entirely generated by artificial intelligence tools. Their topics largely coincide with the disinformation narratives spread during the same period of time by the politicians, influencers, and anonymous accounts associated with the Russian Federation or Ilan Sor. During the previous monitoring which was conducted using a pre-determined list of hashtags for identifying disinformation narratives in the election...

Dozens of media sources, pages, channels, and public or anonymous accounts on Facebook, Telegram, and TikTok guided by pro-Russian policy or publishing anti-European content presented the Independence Day and the events of August 27 in a manipulative “package” focused on several narratives: the current governance is a dictatorship and is liable for the chaos in the country; Moldova is a vassal state, and the European leaders who attended the celebration are the “masters who arrived to see their...

In the first part of August, monitoring the Moldovan information space on Facebook demonstrates that disinformation campaigns and manipulative discourse keep intensifying. The messages aim to shatter citizens’ trust in the state authorities, to undermine the election process, and to amplify social polarization by means of using sensitive topics. On 83Facebook pages and public groups monitored by us, it is observed that the prevailing narratives are from a well-known propaganda arsenal adapted to...

The most important event discussed within the Gagauz information space was the fact that Evghenia Gutul, the head of the autonomy, was sentenced to prison; her case was related to the illegal financing of the former Sor Party. The topic has been covered by various sources in the context of several disinformation narratives. A narrative appealing to emotions and national identity is that the arrest of the head of the region is an attack against Gagauzia’s autonomy. In a news item published by Can...

In the first half of August, one fake news item was published on the Telegram channels in the Moldovan information space “specialized” in anti-EU and anti-government content every two days. The rhythm of their publication demonstrates an unprecedented intensification of disinformation activity, which is most probably related to the upcoming parliamentary elections. The fakes were intended to supplement “traditional” disinformation narratives addressed to Moldovans: the LGBTQ+ “threat,” Russophob...