Romanian Intelligence Confirms Existence of Troll Farms and Fake Accounts in Romania

The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) has confirmed that there are troll farms, bots and fake accounts in Romania, but says that the scale of the phenomenon does not endanger national security. However, the SRI denied external involvement in the manipulation of the electoral campaign, according to the answer received by the Parliamentary Commission for Control of the Service.   The Service Control Commission requested information about the existence on the territory of Romania of some state or non-state entities that may affect or influence the democratic process of the presidential and parliamentary elections.   “Until now, no content elements specific to propaganda or disinformation campaigns orchestrated by external actors hostile to Romania have been identified. In an electoral context, troll/bot farms are generally tools used to increase the popularity of candidates or attacks on counter-candidates (respectively on online entities, web pages or accounts opened on social media platforms that belong to them), aspects specific to electoral campaigns online or offline. The analysis carried out highlighted the existence and use of fake accounts at the level of social media platforms aimed at artificially increasing the popularity of certain competitors, as well as the promotion of content directed against counter-candidates.Regarding the fake accounts, they were created and activated during this year, the accounts being oriented towards the release of messages denigrating the counter-candidates. Online platforms will initiate advanced analysis efforts in order to identify similar accounts and action patterns that outline the real extent of the so-called «troll networks». In order to maintain a climate of security in the virtual space, in the exercise of legal responsibilities, the Romanian Information Service cooperates with the relevant institutions and authorities at the national level, taking into account the use of all the tools and mechanisms provided by the European and national normative framework. Considering the fact that, by scale and impact, compared to the extremely low degree of interactions and content generated by the false accounts identified as active, national security was not affected, the data obtained being transmitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for their management according to legal responsibilities. Based on an order issued by a national authority and the finding of violation of the provisions of the terms of use, the platforms can decide to remove the content and/or close the accounts,” SRI replied.   The Romanian Intelligence Service does not “undertake any action that promotes or harms the interests of any political party or natural or legal person, except for those actions by them that contravene national security”, the press release of the SRI Control Commission also stated.