Before the presidential election and the referendum on accession to the EU, which will take place this autumn, falsehoods that hit the current government with narratives served by Russia appeared online. Yesterday, May 30, just one day after Meta closed over 1,300 accounts affiliated with the Shor criminal group, two videos with untruths about the authorities appeared on websites with pirated movies and series, IPN reports, with reference to Deschide.md
“The first video tells about a non-existent initiative of the Ministry of Education and Research, allegedly in partnership with the EU, to open, on June 1, a military camp called “Defenders of Moldova”. In the fake news with distortions and grammatical errors, the authors try to parasitize on the Moldovans’ fear of war. The ostentatious use of images with the flag of the European Union and the EU Ambassador in Chisinau, Janis Mazeiks, aims to discredit the European path of the Republic of Moldova.
Another video shows the false appeal, allegedly from the authorities, for the citizens to support a so-called patriotic tax, which, hallucinatingly, proposes that 10 percent of all the money transfers coming from abroad be paid into the state budget.
The videos, which appear as advertising, connect users with the official page of the Government of the Republic of Moldova. The Government’s spokesman Daniel Vodă reacted on his Facebook page: “Dear friends, we lived to see this one. Pirated movie sites featured sponsored videos in the Romanian language promoting lies and fabricated narratives. It is obvious that these videos are part of a disinformation campaign (Privet, Maskva!),” Vodă wrote, suggesting that the Russian propaganda was behind the perpetrators of these falsehoods.
He also came up with a set of recommendations for the citizens to avoid the online falsehoods: “Install ad blockers: Use AdGuard or AdBloc; consult official and trusted websites before sharing such news. Report fake content: If you see fake videos or posts, report them on those social media platforms. And, please tell your mother, father, grandparents, Aunt Raia from the staircase! Protect your family from falsehoods!” urged the Government‘s spokesman.
