A network of Facebook pages published more than 4100 political ads in support of far-right Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, while simultaneously attacking pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi, Bloomberg reported.

The campaign was deployed on 25 Facebook pages of organizations whose websites shared hosting, advertising and email infrastructure, suggesting a joint effort to influence the election, according to a report by digital threat research group Reset Tech) and Check First. It is unclear who is behind the network, which boosted political posts on Facebook and Instagram with ad spending of up to 264.909 euros, according to the report, cited by Bloomberg.

Far-right independent candidate Calin Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of the November 24 presidential election thanks to an election campaign based primarily on the social network TikTok. Georgescu claims that he did not spend a single lei on the campaign. The election was annulled by the Constitutional Court after intelligence reports were presented at a meeting of the Supreme National Defense Council saying Romania was targeted by "aggressive Russian hybrid actions" during the election process. The Romanian authorities are currently investigating Georgescu's election campaign, and the entire process of electing the head of state will start from the beginning.

The surprise victory of the pro-Russian Georgescu, whose participation in the election race was within statistical error before voting day, drew attention to the role of social networks. Romanian authorities focused on Chinese company ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok platform, accusing it of giving the then-little-known Georgescu massive visibility and preferential treatment. A report by Reset Tech and Check First indicates that the effort to influence the election is greater, according to Digi 24 television.

The authors of the report, cited by Bloomberg, note that while attention has been focused on TikTok, new evidence suggests that Meta's platforms - Facebook and Instagram - have been used to spread aggressive political messages, unverified claims and a polarizing narrative.

Meta declined to comment on the content of the report. The company's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said last week that they had no evidence of "major incidents" on their platforms related to Romania. According to his statement, quoted by Euronews and Digi24, Nick Clegg said the company was in "almost daily" contact with the Romanian authorities.

The ads described in the report portray Calin Georgescu as a "patriotic president" protecting the nation from the political regime. The leader of the Union for the Salvation of Romania, Elena Lasconi, has been described as a "devil" and puppet of the West, and the current head of state, Klaus Iohannis, as a "dictator" for supporting Lasconi.

Researchers identified the campaign using Meta's ad library, a transparency initiative that provides detailed information about advertisers using the company's platforms. They estimate that since August, the ads have been viewed about 199 million times. The profiles of the registered advertisers had Facebook pages with administrators located primarily in Romania and presented themselves as informative or entertainment pages. But the sites had no legal personality or imprint, and many were linked by shared IP addresses, identical web design and shared email and advertising configurations, suggesting a centralized management structure, the report said.