WASHINGTON (AP) – Facebook allowed an exiled Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and rebellion against the pro-Western government, even though he and his political party were on a US sanctions list.
The ads featuring politician and convicted fraudster Ilan Shor were eventually removed by Facebook, but not before they were viewed millions of times in Moldova, a small country of about 2.6 million sandwiched between Romania and war-torn Ukraine.
Seeking to exploit anger over inflation and rising fuel prices, paid posts from Shor’s political party targeted the government of pro-Western President Maia Sandu, who earlier this week detailed that external sabotage was being carried out. There was a Russian plot to topple his government by using them.
“Attempts to destabilize are a reality and for our institutions, they represent a real challenge,” Sandu said on Thursday as he swore in a new government led by pro-Western Prime Minister Doreen Risen, his former defense minister. and was a security advisor. “We need decisive steps to strengthen the country’s security.”
The ads reveal that Russia and its allies have used social media platforms — such as Facebook, many of them operated by US companies, to spread propaganda and disinformation — that weaponize economic and social insecurity in an effort to undermine governments in Eastern Europe. – has taken advantage of loopholes.
The noisy ads have helped fuel angry protests against the government and appear to be aimed at destabilizing Moldova and driving it back into Russia’s sphere of influence, said Natalia Gavrilita, a foreign policy adviser to former Moldovan prime minister. According to Dorin Fraisineau, whose resignation led to the formation of a new government on Thursday
A man walks past election posters advertising candidates for the Shor party, led by Israeli-born Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, in Chisinau, Moldova, on February 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
“Even though it’s on the US sanctions list, I still see sponsored ads on Facebook,” Frasino said, adding that he had seen fake accounts sharing the posts this week. He added that the Moldovan government did not demand any response from Facebook. “We’ve talked with Facebook, but it’s very difficult because there’s no specific person, no contact.”
The rules governing the sanctions list prevent US companies from engaging in financial transactions with listed individuals and groups. The US Treasury Department, which administers the sanctions program, declined to comment publicly when asked about the ads.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it removed the posts as soon as they received them.
A spokesperson for the company said, “When Ilan Shor and the Shor Party were added to the US sanctions list, we took action on their known accounts.”
“When we identified new affiliated accounts, we took action on those as well. We comply with US sanctions laws and will continue to work to detect and enforce fake accounts and Pages that violate our policies ”
Meta, which recently announced deep layoffs, did not respond to questions about the size of its workforce in Moldova, or the number of employees who speak Moldovan languages. Like many large tech firms based in the US, Meta sometimes struggles to moderate content in languages other than English.
The ads were identified by researchers from Reset, a London-based nonprofit researching the impact of social media on democracy, who shared their findings with The Associated Press. Felix Carte, a senior advisor at Reset, said that Meta’s response to the disinformation and propaganda in Moldova could have wider implications for European security.
A poster depicting Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip, President Igor Dodon and Israeli-born Moldovan businessman and politician Ilan Shor, that reads “Don’t vote for the oligarchs” is placed on a lighthouse in Chisinau, Moldova, in February Is. 23, 2019, a day before the parliamentary elections in the country. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)
“Their platforms continue to be weaponized by the Kremlin and Russian secret services, and because of the company’s inaction, the US and Europe risk losing a key ally in the region,” said Carte, based in Berlin.
Nine separate paid posts from the Noise Party went up on Facebook after the US imposed the ban. Most were dropped within a week of the sanctions being announced, although Shore bought another paid post in January, two months after it was approved. All were clearly recognizable by the name of the noise.
These posts can be found in Facebook’s online ad library, which has a searchable catalog.
The library confirms that the advertisements placed by Shor and his party were viewed millions of times before they were eventually removed.
The most recent ad was removed a month ago because it failed to include a disclaimer about the ad’s sponsor, according to a notation attached to one of the videos in the library. Doesn’t mention library restrictions.
In this file photo taken on October 28, 2021, people walk past a newly unveiled logo for ‘Meta’, the new name of Facebook’s parent company, outside the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California . (Noah Berger/AFP)
The ads weren’t a moneymaker for Meta, generating only $15,000 in revenue, an insignificant amount for a company that earned $4.65 billion in the previous quarter.
Nonetheless, they were effective. An ad, which ran on Facebook for just two days – 29–30 October – was viewed over a million times in Moldova. In the post, which cost Shor’s party less than $100 to upload, the oligarch accused Sandu’s government of graft and corruption.
Shore tells the audience, “You and I have to get them out of their offices by the ears and throw them out of our country.”
Shor, 35, is an Israeli-born Moldovan oligarch who leads the populist, Russia-friendly Shor party. Shor, currently living in exile in Israel, has been implicated in the 2014 theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks; He is accused of bribery to secure his position as president of a Moldovan bank, and in October was named to a US Treasury Department sanctions list for working for Russian interests.
The US says Shor worked “with corrupt oligarchs and Moscow-based entities to foment political unrest in Moldova” and undermine the country’s bid to join the European Union. Shor Party and the wife of Russian pop star Shor are also named in the sanctions list. Britain also added noise to the sanctions list last December.
Last fall, Moldova was rocked by a series of anti-government protests launched by the Noise party that saw thousands take to the streets in the capital Chisinau, at a time of skyrocketing inflation and Russia cutting gas supplies. After an acute energy crisis Moldova.
Many protesters demanded early elections and demanded Sandu’s resignation.
Around the same time, the government of Moldova filed a request with the country’s Constitutional Court to declare the Noise Party illegal, a case which is ongoing. Moldova’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office also launched an investigation into the financing of the protests, which prosecutors said involved at least some Russian money.
On Monday, Sandu went public with what he claimed was a plot by Moscow to overthrow the government using external saboteurs, to place the country “at Russia’s disposal” and to one day join the European Union. to derail it.
Sandu said the alleged Russian plot envisioned attacks on government buildings, hostage-taking and other violent actions by groups of saboteurs. Russia has since strongly denied those claims.
Moldova, once part of the Soviet Union, declared its independence in 1991. In recent years, the country has gone from one political crisis to another, often hanging in the balance between pro-Russian and pro-Western sentiments.
But in 2021, after decades of largely oligarchic power structures and various Russia-friendly leaders, Moldovan elected a pro-Western, pro-European government, putting it on a more explicitly Western-oriented path. In June, Moldova was granted EU candidate status, on the same day as Ukraine.