The use of election advertising on social media creates problems of transparency and legality. The conclusion belongs to Promo-LEX. According to the institution, the 2024 election campaign was one of the most "digitized" ones in the history of the Republic of Moldova, especially through sponsored posts, Google Ads and promoted videos, IPN reports.

Of the total promotional activities seen in the election campaign, 35% were in the online space, for which electoral competitors reported costs of approximately 5 million lei. Most of the online activities were carried out by the PAS and Maia Sandu, Renato Usatyi and Alexandr Stoianoglo.

According to Promo-LEX, it is worrying that there is no transparent information about the real source of this funding, especially in the case of anonymous pages that promoted electoral messages. In this connection, Promo-LEX estimated that over 400,000 lei was not reported by electoral competitors for online advertising.

The lack of effective monitoring mechanisms makes the financing of election campaigns through online advertisements almost impossible to control. The national legislation also does not provide clear and detailed rules on online advertising. This situation opens a loophole for circumventing the rules on campaign financing, jeopardizing the fairness of the electoral process.

The conduct of electoral activities before the official start of the campaign is another problem highlighted by Promo-LEX’s report. Between August 21 and September 20, 2024, at least 15 people expressed their intention to run in the presidential election, but their promotion, both online and offline, began long before the official nomination.

Promo-LEX warns that this practice undermines equal opportunities and allows circumventing strict rules on campaign financing.