The National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) announced on Monday, May 5, that an misinformation campaign has been identified that aims to reduce the level of voting participation.
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“In the continuation of the investigation carried out in cooperation by several state institutions with attributions in the field, ANCOM is mandated to communicate the following:
Following the investigations conducted at the level of the local information space by the state institutions with attributions in the field, at the level of a social media platform, a campaign of misinformation to generate a state of panic and concern was identified, the purpose being amplified the antisystem feeling and the decrease of the level of participation in the vote”, Says ANCOM, according to news.ro.
Thus, at the level of the social media platform, several accounts with unauthorized behavior distribute links of sites hosted outside Romania, where several false alarmist news is presented regarding incidents in which high-ranking people or members of their family were involved, or catastrophes with a large number of victims, with high emotional impact.
The promotion of such misleading elements is in contradiction with the provisions of the European Regulation on digital services that establish measures to protect European citizens.
“In view of the mentioned aspects, the representatives of the company holding the platform were contacted, being reported and partially eliminated the network of accounts involved in promoting within the local online communities, in order to maintain these influence activities below the national detection threshold.”, The authority shows.
For effective counteracting, the competent authorities (Ministry of Internal Affairs, ANCOM and Special Telecommunications Service) have taken measures to block access to identified malicious internet pages, ANCOM points out.
The National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) is the institution that promotes the interests of the users of electronic communications, postal services and digital services in the context of the transition to the Gigabit Society, by optimally capitalizing on the mix of administration and regulatory tools available to the authority.
