The video of the two wrestling men has been shared 41,000 times on Facebook, though the post was removed on April 7, after WIRED brought it to the platform’s attention. The TikTok account that originally posted it was deleted overnight on April 6. Posts shared more than 10,000 times are very unusual for Moldova, a country of only 2.6 million inhabitants, Pașa says. Watchdog.MD estimates that of the 2.1 million adults living in the government-controlled area of Moldova, only 1.4 million regularly use Facebook and 315,000 use TikTok.
“I would describe Moldova as in the midst of an information war,” said Vadim Pistrinciuc, executive director of the Chişinu-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Initiatives.
What the people behind this campaign do most is look for authentic content that meets their needs, says Pașa. Once that content is identified, usually on TikTok, it’s uploaded to Facebook, where fake profiles spread the video across the platform, he adds.
“She [use] tens of thousands of fake profiles and share this content with different groups or just on the timelines of these fake accounts,” says Pașa. Not only does this make a video more prominent on Facebook, but it also entices TikTok’s algorithm to show it more on that platform. “In this way, they artificially make this content, which is usually a video, go viral.”
Meta declined to issue a statement in time for publication attributable to a said spokesperson.
“We are currently assessing the situation for possible violations of our Community Guidelines, which prohibit inauthentic behavior,” said TikTok spokesperson Sara Mosavi.
On March 4, TikTok user @hozyayka1997, a young woman who appears to be a Ukrainian refugee, filmed a new video. Looking straight into the camera, she finds herself in a flurry of complaints about how Ukrainian refugees are being treated in Germany. She speaks in Russian and her face is framed with a black fur hat. At one point in the one-minute video, she turns the camera to show her where she is: in a dirty white tent, filled with long benches. She tells how the German authorities kept Ukrainians waiting in the cold for hours, without food or water. “Are we humans or cattle?” she asks.
The video, which has been viewed 650,000 times on TikTok, was reposted to Facebook by an account that posts a massive amount of pro-Russian content and has 3,700 connections. Among the Facebook comments of the video criticizing the woman for wearing makeup and fur, one user says, “Look at the profile of the person who posted the video, it’s a provocation.”
In another TikTok video, a woman claiming to be from Southern Moldova says refugees demand “luxury” — they don’t like their accommodation or their food, which they “throw on the floor.” She says they should go back to their country if they don’t like Moldova.
When the video was reposted to Facebook on March 10, a Moldovan flag was posted to hide the TikTok username of the person who originally posted the video. Before it was taken down by Facebook on April 7, it was shared 15,000 times.
