On August 8, 2025, in Cahul, the final session in the series “Protecting Information Integrity in Elections” took place, organized by the Association ADEPT in partnership with UNESCO and the Association for Combating Information Isolation ECOU, under the auspices of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.

The topic of electoral disinformation, increasingly present in the public space as the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova approach, was at the center of discussions during this session.

According to Lilia Zaharia, an expert in preventing disinformation, the key threats this year will be deepfakes and bot networks, capable of generating thousands of false messages. “Fear and uncertainty will be used as weapons in the public space, and the public is vulnerable both online and offline,” she warned, presenting a set of practical exercises designed to counter manipulation.

Vitalie Ponomariov, Executive Director of ECOU, drew attention to the growing use of TikTok for propaganda purposes and the use of artificial intelligence to create manipulative content. “It is no longer just a network for entertainment – it is becoming a tool of political influence,” he said, also presenting a media analysis from Gagauzia that identified pro-Russian narratives and bot-driven networks.

From a cybersecurity perspective, Dinu Țurcanu, Vice-Rector for Digitalization at the Technical University of Moldova, reported over 131,000 attempted attacks on the Central Electoral Commission’s systems this year alone. Among the solutions he proposed were verification tools such as InVID WeVerify, Viewer Forensics, and EXIF Tools.

The Cahul event concluded the series of training sessions previously held in Chișinău and Bălți, bringing together approximately 80 trainers from the north, south, and center of the country, all prepared to pass on accurate and verified information in their communities. Julia Melotti, representing UNESCO, reiterated the organization’s role in protecting democracy: “Wars begin in the minds of people, and it is there that they must end. We support projects that facilitate access to truthful information, with the media and civil society as key pillars in combating disinformation.”

In the context of the September 28, 2025 parliamentary elections, Polina Panainte, Deputy Director of ADEPT and Secretary of CALC, recommended the platform alegeri.md as the main source of up-to-date information on the electoral process, emphasizing the importance of public access to correct and verified data.