U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent letters to Meta and Alphabet, urging them to commit sufficient resources to addressing disinformation and misinformation in Moldova on their respective platforms, He underlined the necessity of preventing malign foreign influence from interfering in one of the most important choices Moldovans will ever make, IPN reports.
According to a press release of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the letters point to Moldova’s imminent constitutional referendum on the country’s aspiration to join the European Union and cites evidence provided by the governments of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom regarding ongoing Kremlin efforts to sow confusion and disinformation among the Moldovan public.
“This is a unique moment in Moldova’s history that will determine the future for generations of Moldovans – and the decision must be Moldovans’ alone,” wrote Chair Cardin. He expressed his hope that Meta will act without delay to allocate additional resources to support a fair electoral environment in the run up to October 20.
Ben Cardin cites WatchDog.MD, a Moldovan civil society group that closely monitors disinformation on social media platforms, as saying that it recently found that Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, who is sanctioned by the U.S., EU, UK, and Canada has paid for sponsored ads on Meta platforms. Ilan Shor spent more than $33,000 on Facebook advertisements in June alone, and more than $400,000 since being sanctioned in October 2022.
In his letter to Alphabet, the U.S. senator says that WatchDog.MD found that sponsored advertising on Google “is one of the main tools of disinformation” in Moldova. WatchDog.MD notes that the Moldovan government is powerless to stop this disinformation campaign without Alphabet’s support.
“Alphabet has an important chance this month to ensure that the Moldovan people can decide their own future. I hope that Alphabet seizes this opportunity to ensure its platforms are a forum for good,” runs the letter.
