Tomasz Warszewski / Depositphotos
Institute will have detected “activity of a network of several fake accounts” with misinformation messaging publications.
The Polish Institute for Monitoring Nask Digital Networks announced today that it has discoveredinterference with the presidential campaign of Polandwith “coherent messages with the Russian advertising line”.
The announcement about the alleged interference was made three days before the first lap of scrutiny, scheduled for Sunday.
The election campaign in Poland is marked by a Hard confrontation between pro-European Rafal Trzaskowski and populist Karol Nawrockki.
Trzaskowskicandidate of the civic coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Lead the polls with about 32% of voting intentions.
The historian Nawrock, promoted by the populist nationalist opposition Law and Justice (PIS), has the support of about 26% of potential voters, according to the latest polls, cited by the France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
NASK stated in a statement that, in cooperation with special services, it found “new information operations designed to destabilize the electoral process” in Poland.
“The analysis focused on the activity of a network of several hundred fake accounts In Network X (former Twitter), which coordinated, in a coordinated manner, consistent messages with the Russian Federation’s advertising line, ”said the institute.
The same narratives, with an identical graphic presentation, were also detected in the Telegram messaging service, published by “accounts known for participation in Russian misinformation activities ”.
According to NASK, the content of the widespread messages concerned mainly the themes that polarize public debate, related to security, foreign policy, migration or socioeconomic situation.
Since the beginning of the year, NASK said it had detected more than 10,000 English and Polish accounts that “trying to influence elections, informing about the potential threat of terrorist attacks on May 18,” election day.
Trzaskowski and Nawrockki teams today announced the intention to refer to the prosecutor cases of misinformation and actions directed against their candidates, who may have been financed from the foreigner.
Warsaw reported in May the intensification of Russian computer attacks against Poland. One of the attacks aimed at the computer system of the Civic Coalition Party by Donald Tusk.
Polish authorities, allies of neighboring Ukraine, invaded by Russia since February 2022, have been alerting for months to the possibility of Moscow to try to interfere with presidential elections through cybership and misinformation.
Poland has often accused Russia to carry out hybrid attacks and orchestrate sabotage in Polish territory.
