According to reports, Romanian prosecutors found ‘Troll Farm’ helping former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu

According to reports, Romanian prosecutors are investigating a ‘Troll farm’ using IP and Turkish accounts based on Russian email accounts, which helped increase the awareness of the former presidential candidate of the extreme right Călin Georgescu Before last year’s elections, G4Media.ro reported.

The Office of the Attorney General requested the cooperation of Turkey on January 27, through an application letter, when investigating a Troll farm that contributed to the electoral campaign of Călin Georgescu, judicial sources told local media.

The trolls have “electronic addresses” (IPS) located in Türkiye and used Russian email services to create more than 20,000 accounts on the Tiktok platform.

These more than 20,000 accounts published more than 2.1 million comments on Tiktok as of November 23, 2024, that is, the day before the first voting round, promoting the presidential candidate CăLin Georgescu.

This is a considerable number of comments whose purpose was to promote Georgescu. The Tiktok algorithm allows an account (in this case – C clin Georgescu) to increase its visibility if it is promoted through many comments that contain a label to that account.

According to the reports, the email addresses of the Russian email service providers were used to create accounts on the network. The IPS associated with the members of the Troll farm were located in the main Turkish cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa and Izmir.

Supposedly, the addresses are connected to the social media marketing company registered in the United Kingdom Freak Ltd. According to online research, the company is owned by Luke John Askew, who also has the Nexisites company.

The Troll farm published the comments on Tiktok using digital marketing services provided by Social Freak Ltd, according to G4Media.ro. The payment of the services offered by Social Freak Ltd can also be made through cryptocurrencies, a payment method that hides the identity of the person who ordered the service.

[email protected]

(Photo source: INVLAM/OCTAV GANEA PHOTOS)