Poland identifies foreign-funded political Facebook ads ahead of presidential election

Facebook has banned a number of political adverts that were identified by a Polish state agency as likely to be a foreign-funded attempt to interfere in the campaign for this Sunday’s presidential election.

The nature and source of the adverts in question have not been officially confirmed, but two Polish media outlets claim to have identified them. Meanwhile, senior figures from both the ruling coalition and the opposition have suggested the adverts could be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

On Wednesday afternoon, NASK, a Polish state research institute tasked with, among other things, monitoring cyberthreats, announced that its Disinformation Analysis Centre had identified political adverts on Facebook that may be financed from abroad, something not permitted under Polish law.

They noted that more had been spent on those adverts over the last week than by any of the official campaign committees supporting the 13 candidates standing in Sunday’s presidential election. NASK said that the adverts in question “were ostensibly intended to support one of the candidates and discredit others”.

However, “analysis indicates a possible provocation…[whose] purpose could have been to act to the detriment of the candidate allegedly supported by such ads and to destabilise the situation before the presidential elections”, added the agency.

NASK did not specify which candidate was being supported in the adverts and which were being attacked, but said that the three individuals in question are Rafał Trzaskowski, Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen, who are the three frontrunners in the campaign according to polls.

It added that Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) had been notified and “actions are being taken to determine the sources of origin and financing of the campaign”. A few hours later, NASK announced that Facebook’s owner, Meta, has blocked the adverts in question.

Meanwhile, Poland’s defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said that the digital affairs ministry was also investigating the issue and that “urgent clarification of this matter is most necessary”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“Let’s not be manipulated by fake news that Russia has been spreading for years in various areas,” added Kosiniak-Kamysz. Last week, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkorski warned that Poland is “facing an unprecedented attempt by Russia to interfere in the elections”.

NASK did not provide any details regarding the content of the adverts it had identified as potential foreign-funded election interference nor their source. However, both OKO.press, a liberal fact-checking and analysis website, and Niezależna, a conservative news service, have unofficially done so.

They have both identified the source as two anonymous accounts – called “Wiesz Jak Nie Jest” (“You Know How It Isn’t”) and “Stół Dorosłych” (“Adults’ Table”) – that have been buying political adverts on Facebook which attack Nawrocki and Mentzen and promote Trzaskowski.

OKO.press notes that “Wiesz Jak Nie Jest” initially featured criticism of Mentzen, the candidate of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, before switching to similar videos attacking Nawrocki, who is supported by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), after Mentzen declined in the polls.

Stół Dorosłych, meanwhile, has promoted material praising Trzaskowski, the candidate of Civic Platform (PO), Poland’s main centrist ruling party.

Over the last 30 days, “Wiesz Jak Nie Jest” has spent almost 286,000 zloty (€68,000) on promoting such ads, which normally take the form of people speaking on the streets of Polish cities, while “Stół Dorosłych” has spent over 141,000 zloty, reports OKO.press.

Niezależna, meanwhile, claims that the websites linked to the two accounts were registered by a German company that is known to have previously registered websites used for pro-Russian disinformation.

However, OKO.press notes that the company is a major registrar where anyone can register a domain, meaning that the fact it was used by these particular websites does not provide any evidence of who is behind them.

Earlier on Wednesday (before NASK’s announcement), two PiS MPs, Paweł Jabłoński and Michał Moskal, held a press conference raising concern about the two Facebook accounts and calling on the justice and interior ministers to take action.

“We are raising the alarm that, behind Rafał Trzaskowski’s campaign, are…companies associated with foreign entities, whose activity bears the hallmarks of an organised disinformation operation,” said Moskal, noting that the trail leads to “a company associated with Russian disinformation”.

“We are talking about activity that could pose a real threat to the sovereignty of democratic elections in Poland,” he continued. “These are not just abuses – they are an attempt to steer the elections through foreign influence.”

Former PiS digital affairs minister Janusz Cieszyński, meanwhile, criticised NASK for only taking action now, weeks after concerns were raised over the Facebook accounts, and for not making clear in its statement that Trzaskowski was the beneficiary of the adverts.

Main image credit: Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja wyborcza.pl