A TikTok video of actor Brian Baumgartner, from the American version of the officeCalling for the overthrow of the president of a small European country was an early sign that this would not be just any election.
Late last year, Baumgartner appeared among a group of American celebrities who addressed Maia Sandu, the current pro-European president of Moldova, and proclaimed in broken Russian: “We, Hollywood stars, support the people of Moldova in their desire to overthrow you, Sandu. .” These were not deepfakes. On the other hand, the videos, which researchers suggested were part of a pro-Kremlin influence operation—they were official on Cameo, the app that allows anyone to purchase personalized greetings from celebrities. Neither Cameo nor representatives for Baumgartner responded to WIRED’s request for comment.
For years, Moldova – a country similar in size to the US state of Maryland, located between the EU and Ukraine – has complained about Russian meddling. But more recently, as this former Soviet state prepares for a crucial presidential vote and a referendum on whether to join the EU, the country has become a warning about how the world’s largest social media platforms can be exploited to create and finance a complex disinformation operation. that sows discord around some of the most divisive issues in a society.
Since war broke out in neighboring Ukraine two years ago, bots have been scouring the Moldovan Internet in search of authentic content to reach wider audiences, such as videos of Ukrainian refugees behaving badly. Ordinary Moldovans then complained that their Facebook accounts were being flooded with political, often anti-government, ads launched by pages with Vietnamese names. A year later, investigators estimated that Meta had earned at least $200,000 from a pro-Kremlin ad campaign targeting Moldova alone. Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
“It’s unprecedented in terms of complexity,” says Ana Revenco, Moldova’s former interior minister, now in charge of the country’s new Center for Strategic Communication and Combating Disinformation. She believes that what is happening in Moldova on Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and YouTube carries a warning for the rest of the world. “This shows us our collective vulnerability,” he says. “The platforms are not only active here. “If (Russia) can use them here, they can use them everywhere.”
Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Russia-linked accounts have reached new levels of aggression, Revenco says. “They activate accounts that were created a long time ago and were on standby,” he explains. “They are attractive robots and sync posts across multiple platforms.”
