Context
The TikTok algorithm is being manipulated through the coordinated posting of anti-EU and anti-government narratives using the same hashtags.
source: Promo-LEX
A massive network of fake accounts on TikTok, distributing false narratives or coordinated inauthentic content, has been identified by the Promo-LEX team while monitoring the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova. The hashtag they use, #alegmoldova, quickly became trending, accumulating over a million views in just 72 hours.
The accounts in the network post only two hashtags: #alegmoldova and #moldova, and posts with #alegmoldova were viewed 1.3 million times in 72 hours.
The choice of these two tags seems to have a specific purpose, namely to manipulate the TikTok algorithm to force posts into trending, so that users falsely perceive that there is a massive wave of true information supported by hundreds of thousands of people. In reality, this is an operation of “digital intoxication.”
Behind the phenomenon are 25 core accounts, which have since multiplied into nearly 500 additional accounts, distributing the same videos, the same graphics, and the same narratives, repeating the messages and creating the impression of a majority.
The network distributes content generated by artificial intelligence, and some accounts have national elements in their profile pictures to create the false impression that there is an apparently simple person with no hidden interests behind them.
The TikTok accounts identified by Promo-LEX use the image of a Moldovan TV presenter whose voice has been modified using AI. In the video, she claims that a youth movement with anti-European rhetoric is gaining popularity in Moldova and calls on people to vote against the ruling party, stating that under Maia Sandu’s leadership, the country would become “a puppet of the West.”
Another narrative used by the network is that the Russian Federation is deliberately portrayed as evil, and Moldova’s accession to the EU is associated with the promotion of “LGBTQ+ propaganda.”
