In the Republic of Moldova, the covering of the election campaign online is not regulated and the activities of electoral contenders on social networking sites is not monitored by the model used in the case of broadcasters. At the same time, there are no electoral standards on digital promotion, national or international provisions that would regulate online electoral publicity and the content posted on social networking sites, says a monitoring report produced by the Youth Development for Innovation. The foundation during December 26 – January 10 examined ten parties that were registered as contenders or announced their intention to run by the date the monitoring was started.
In a news conference at IPN, Livia Țurcanu, one of the authors, said the necessity of such monitoring derived from the analysis of the international experience in this regard, namely the British referendum Brexit and the presidential elections held in the U.S. in 2016, after which it became known that the instruments of communication on social networking sites have a much greater impact than it was estimated. In Moldova’s case, there is the precedent of the early local mayoral elections of 2018, when the results were invalidated owing to the use of social media on the ‘silence day’.
According to the expert, taking into account the international experience and Moldova’s experience, there appeared the necessity of seeing how things will develop during the parliamentary elections, to what extent the social networking sites will be used and what the content of postings. Currently, the Election Code does not contain separate provisions on the promotion of electoral messages on social networking sites, these being integrated into the category of mass media or other forms of communication. It can be yet anticipated that these tendencies will become more accentuated in the election campaign given that the stake of elections is considerable. As the use of digital instruments in the election campaign is not regulated by the electoral legislation, the social media is an area where the political struggle will be given without taking into account any rule.
The monitoring showed Facebook and Odnoklassniki are the social media platforms that are most often used by electoral competitors, with over 80% of these having a page or a group there. Another two platforms, Youtube and Instagram, are periodically used by about 60-80% of the runners in the parliamentary elections of February 24. among the most active competitors on the four platforms were the Party “Action and Solidary” (Facebook), the Party of Socialists (Odnoklassniki), and the Democratic Party (Instagram). Also, the Democratic Party is on the same position as the Party “Action and Solidary” on Youtube.
Project coordinator Igor Ciurea said the foundation will present two more reports. The second report will be made public before the election day and will refer more to the content promoted online. The last monitoring report will be presented after the elections and will contain conclusions and recommendations, including about the improvement of the use of digital instruments in the elections.
The monitoring report forms part of the project “Monitoring online electoral activity – Parliamentary elections 2019” that is implemented during October 2018 – March 2019 by the Youth Development for Innovation with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
