Pro‑Russian Facebook ads target Europe ahead of EU vote

According to Politico, the aim of pro-Russian ads published on Facebook before the European elections has become Italy and Poland. In April, the portal revealed a disinformation propaganda campaign on the Meta platform was developing.

According to researchers from the nonprofit groups AI Forensics and CheckFirst, in May, about 275 sponsored posts containing anti-Ukrainian and anti-EU content reached over 3 million Facebook users in France, Germany, Italy, and Poland, the portal reported. A month earlier, the European Commission launched an investigation into the matter.

"The influx of illegal ads violating platform rules is an alarm signal for both Meta and regulatory authorities to enforce existing regulations more thoroughly," said Amaury Lesplingart, co-founder of the nonprofit organization CheckFirst.

During the investigation, experts identified hundreds of fake accounts that managed to purchase ads on the Meta platform to spread their messages in several major European countries. "There is no place for Ukraine in the EU," declared five similar ads.

Ads targeting Polish platform users featured the message: "We are all used to constant reports of thefts in Ukraine, but sometimes the cynicism of Ukrainian thieves surprises us."

"They are taking away our future," similar ads in Italian declared, published from nine different fake accounts. They showed the same photo from 2014 depicting a line of people looking for work in Madrid. Our leaders must invest in Italy. But (...) they are spending billions of our money on someone else's war in Ukraine, sacrificing our future for it," read the caption.

Researchers claim that over 65% of ads related to political and social issues were not labelled as such on Facebook in more than 16 EU countries, and Meta removed less than 5% of these ads.

Political ad buyers on Meta must show an official ID. They cannot promote their messages outside the country they reside in, a process more restrictive than for commercial advertisers of paid posts.

Meta questioned the researchers' findings regarding their definition of political ads and their decision not to consider ads that were blocked before publication.

"The Commission is analyzing new findings provided by AI Forensics," said Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier at 3:00 PM EST. He declined to comment on ongoing proceedings against Meta, including any potential interim measures.