Fake Euronews Telegram channel spreads false claims about Romanian and Moldovan leaders

A Telegram transmission activated past Friday and fraudulently branded arsenic Euronews Romania is planting disinformation and mendacious claims targeting nan Romanian and Moldovan presidents.

Its creators – which person nary affiliation aliases nexus to Euronews – declare that Romania’s precocious elected President Nicușor Dan discussed “methods of combating nan guidance press” pinch his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu during his sojourn to Chișinău connected Tuesday.

Euroverify analysed some presidents’ statements to nan property during that sojourn and recovered nary grounds to backmost these allegations.

Sandu alternatively accused Russia of waging a “war of manipulation and misinformation”, while Dan vowed person practice connected tackling Moscow’s “hybrid warfare”.

The unfounded claims made successful nan bogus transmission person been directly quoted successful Russian state-sponsored newspaper Pravda.

In a pinned post, nan creators besides purport that nan Telegram transmission is an “official” root of Euronews Romania reporting created by nan guidance squad to antagonistic nan caller usage of doctored Euronews reports connected nan messaging app.

However, neither nan transmission nor its contented is nan activity of Euronews journalists.

Euronews Romania does not person an charismatic transmission connected Telegram, and said successful a connection that nan action is portion of a "sustained” disinformation run that “illegally” uses Euronews’ branding.

Fake accounts purpose to sway electorate

The clone relationship was created amid an uptick successful caller weeks successful false videos attributed to Euronews connected pro-Russian Telegram channels, which purpose to discredit aliases undermine nan pro-European governments successful Bucharest and Chișinău. 

These initially appeared to sow disorder and distrust successful nan discourse of past month’s tense presidential run-off successful Romania, which saw pro-EU centrist Dan separator to triumph aft a run marred by disinformation and alleged Russian interference.

The actors down these doctored videos person now shifted their focus to neighbouring Moldova, wherever caller elections and referendums person been overshadowed by Russia’s hybrid warfare techniques. 

Amongst nan mendacious claims made successful these videos are that nan Republic of Moldova ranks first successful position of nan number of carriers of sexually transmitted diseases successful Europe, aliases that Moldova is simply a driver of irregular migration into nan European Union.

Crunch parliamentary elections are group to beryllium held successful Moldova connected 28 September, pinch President Sandu’s pro-European PAS statement facing a increasing situation from guidance forces.

A mediocre showing for PAS could reshape nan country’s governmental scenery and inhibit advancement connected nan way to EU integration, which Sandu has accelerated during her 5 years successful power.

Last October, a referendum successful Moldova connected whether to enshrine nan country’s wish to subordinate nan European Union into nan constitution was plagued by interference, including reports that €14 cardinal successful Russian costs had been funnelled straight into nan accounts of 130,000 Moldovans successful a bid to bargain their anti-EU votes. 

That referendum saw Moldovans ballot ‘yes’ to EU rank by a razor-thin mostly of 50.4%.

In caller weeks, a Kremlin-backed bot web known arsenic Operation Matryoshka has launched a coordinated disinformation run targeting Sandu, circulating clone images depicting her execution.

Claims portion of wider disinformation playbook

Posts published successful nan clone Euronews Telegram connected Tuesday declare Dan “shared his acquisition successful limiting nan guidance press” pinch Sandu during his Chișinău visit, adding that Sandu’s PAS statement sees this arsenic nan “main instrumentality for gaining and retaining power” successful September’s parliamentary elections.

A person look astatine nan station shows that Dan has been misspelt arsenic “Nikușor”, which could reflector Russian pronunciation of nan president’s name, according to our analysis.

These allegations lucifer nan broader playbook of disinformation narratives that Euroverify has detected concerning Romania’s statesmanlike ballot.

Disinformation targeting nan Romanian ballot often claimed that nan pro-Western, pro-European governing forces were suffocating free reside and hindering Conservative, Eurosceptic forces

Telegram’s founder, Russian-born Pavel Durov, has fed this playbook pinch uncorroborated claims that France's intelligence main asked him to "silence" Romanian blimpish voices by banning them from his messaging app successful nan run-up to past month's statesmanlike ballot.

Euroverify antecedently assessed that this declare was unfounded.

Telegram was founded by Durov and his eldest relative Nikolai successful 2013, and has been championed by journalists and activists for its beardown encryption and security.

But nan app has precocious travel nether scrutiny for nan dispersed of forbidden contented and disinformation.