A new report claims an attempt was made to use American celebrities through Cameo to target the president of Moldova.
Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, was the target of an attack campaign last September: an effort apparently coordinated by American celebrities on Cameo, an online video platform, calling for her downfall.
The catch: Celebrities, including Dolph Lundgren, Lindsay Lohan and Brian Baumgartner, were manipulated to launch these geopolitical attacks.
This is the conclusion of a new report from Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council, a think tank that studies disinformation and the future of digital rights.
Cameo is a platform that allows users to pay celebrities and TV stars to record a video with the text they want to read. Customers specify who the message is for and why it should be recorded, pay the rate quoted by the celebrity and receive the video.
Euronews Next contacted Cameo for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
The videos begin with a warm greeting to the president, but are then interrupted by a text in Russian: “We, Hollywood stars, support the people of Moldova in their desire to overthrow you, Sandu. We join the flash mob #DavoireSkinemSandu” (which translates to #Let’sBringDownSandu in Russian).
DFRLab report says the videos do not appear to be deepfakes but were edited using fake subtitles “without the consent of the celebrities involved”.
The video was shared by prominent pro-Russian channels on Telegram and has been viewed at least two hundred thousand times.
The report concludes that operations attempt to “discredit and weaken the current pro-European administration of Moldova”because President Maia Sandu “moves towards European integration and moves away from Russia’s sphere of influence”.
The next elections in Moldova are scheduled for the fall and Maia Sandu is running for re-election. Local media say she is linking her candidacy to a ” integration total at theEU”.
In December, the EU decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova.