This shows us our collective vulnerability

October 21, 2024 2:04 AM

For years, Moldova—a country similar in size to the US state of Maryland, sandwiched between the EU and Ukraine—has complained of Russian meddling. But more recently, as this former Soviet state prepares for a pivotal presidential vote and referendum on whether to join the EU, the country has become a cautionary tale about how the world’s biggest social media platforms can be exploited to create and fund a complex disinformation operation that sows discord around some of a society’s most divisive subjects. from The Disinformation Warning Coming From the Edge of Europe [Wired; ungated]

Moldova EU membership referendum hangs in the balance, early results show [Al Jazeera]
Moldova split on referendum to join EU [DW]
Moldova president condemns ‘assault’ on democracy by ‘foreign forces’ as EU vote hangs in balance [Grauniad; ungated]

posted by chavenet (8 comments total)

Moldovans narrowly vote to secure the country’s path toward EU membership by Stephen McGrath for Associated Press. Excerpt:

CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldovans voted by a razor-thin majority in favor of securing the country’s path toward European Union membership, electoral data showed Monday, following a ballot that nearly caused a major setback for the pro-Western president, who accused “criminal groups” of trying to undermine the vote.

With 99.41% of the 1.4 million votes counted in the EU referendum held Sunday, the “Yes” vote stood at 50.39%, to 49.61% who voted “No,” according to the Central Electoral Commission.

The “No” vote had looked to be ahead right until the last few thousand votes were counted from the country’s large diaspora. A loss would have been a political disaster for the pro-Western government, which strongly supported the pro-EU campaign.

[…]

In the presidential race that was held at the same time, Sandu won the first round with 42% of the vote in a field of 11, but failed to win an outright majority. She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Russia-friendly former prosecutor general who outperformed polls with around 26% of the vote, in a runoff on Nov. 3.

By the time polls closed at 9 p.m. Sunday, more than 1.5 million voters — about 51% of eligible voters — had cast ballots, according to the Central Electoral Commission.

Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told The Associated Press that polls might have “overestimated the pro-EU feeling” inside Moldova, which would have failed to pass without votes from outside the country.

“It’s going to be particularly problematic because ... it’s going to feed into narratives that are pushed by the Kremlin and pro-Russian forces,” he said.

posted by Kattullus at 3:49 AM on October 21 [10 favorites]

Any big right-wing victory over the past decade has a direct influence from Russia. Brexit, Trump, recent elections in France, Italy, and Austria, all have clear fingerprints of Russian backed operators. There was a bit of a downturn after the trade embargo was announced but Russia has since solved the problem of “how to sell cans of crude oil”, and is now funding ever more chaotic operations.
posted by The River Ivel at 3:54 AM on October 21 [11 favorites]

The book "Mindf*ck" by Chris Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, is essential reading. That story, is of course about US politics, but it is set in London and written by a Canadien. There is no question that the problem of social media's troubling relationship with anti-democratic forces is inherently an international one. And tbh, troubling is probably an understatement.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:02 AM on October 21 [6 favorites]

Facebook and X should be shuttered as crimes against humanity, and any remaining social media heavily regulated. Our brains are just not wired to deal with this extent and reach of bullshit.

I mean, we also need to work at developing better critical thinking, supporting education, and dealing with all of the apocalyptic chaos we’ve unleashed, too, but let’s treat the life-threatening symptoms first.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:10 AM on October 21 [8 favorites]

Also, poor Moldova! They’ve been a football kicked around by one empire or another for a long time.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:13 AM on October 21 [3 favorites]

Sounds like maybe a less sophisticated version of what's going on with Twitter re: US politics. Also, extremely in character of Kevin from the Office to unwittingly put himself at the center of some eastern European conflict he's totally unfamiliar with. Best of luck, Moldovans!
posted by Hume at 4:41 AM on October 21 [1 favorite]

I'm over here in Moldova living with my fiancee. The mood is pretty dark here in the cosmopolitan international bubble that constitutes my circle. Even though there has been an extremely narrow win for the referendum, there will be a second round of voting, and the position of the pro-Russian candidate is extremely strong.

Moldova is complicated. Casual corruption is widespread: The opposition gave free Russian credit cards out like candy. Loads of people live in an alternative Russophone information space where LGBT folks are fantasy goblins and anywhere to the west is a Mad Max hellscape. The government is often feckless, as much as I admire certain people trying their best in it. A lot of the best and brightest have left, and we might too. Yet, there's so much potential in the beautiful fallow land, and in the youth, who often punch above their weight. It's frankly sad.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 4:58 AM on October 21 [17 favorites]

Those of us who spent the 80s dreaming of the day when everyone would have a computer, all the computers would talk to one another, and all the people would have disintermediated multiway communication with one another... we did not anticipate many of the consequences of getting rid of all the gatekeepers.

It was supposed to lead to Power to the People, the Power to Stick It To The Man. Somehow things have not worked out that way.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:04 AM on October 21 [3 favorites]