EXCLUSIVE: Russia suspected of involvement in Călin Georgescu’s campaign—General Prosecutor’s Office seeks Turkey’s help in investigating a troll farm

The General Prosecutor’s Office of Romania requested cooperation from Turkey on January 27, through a letter rogatory, for investigating a troll farm that contributed to the electoral campaign of Călin Georgescu, judicial sources told G4Media. The trolls had electronic addresses (IP addresses) located in Turkey and used Russian email services to create over 20,000 TikTok accounts.

These over 20,000 accounts posted on TikTok more than 2.1 million comments starting from November 23, 2024, the day before the first round of voting, promoting the presidential candidate Călin Georgescu.

E vorba de un număr uriaș de comentarii al căror scop a fost promovarea lui Călin Georgescu. Algoritmul Tiktok permite creșterea vizibilității unui cont (în speță – Călin Georgescu) dacă acest cont este promovat printr-un număr mare de comentarii care conțin un tag la acel cont.

What is the connection between this troll farm and Russia?

For creating the network’s accounts, email addresses from Russian email providers (rambler.ru) were used.

Additionally, for generating the 20,321 TikTok accounts, an equal number of email accounts were created using an automated algorithm. This algorithm followed a template using „ushakov.” or „aleksandrov.” prefixes, followed by a random combination of five characters (digits and letters).

The over 20,000 email addresses were automatically generated by the troll farm in the format:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].

Multiple accounts in the network are managed from common IP addresses (the 15 most-used IP addresses are located in Turkey) and from identical devices, which demonstrates the existence of this troll farm that significantly contributed to promoting Călin Georgescu’s campaign on TikTok, according to G4Media information. The IP addresses were located in major Turkish cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, and Izmir.

The addresses are connected to the company Social Freak Ltd, registered in the UK, which offers social media marketing services. According to online investigations, the company is owned by Luke John Askew, who also owns the company NEXISITES.

How did the trolls post comments on TikTok?

The troll farm posted comments on TikTok using the digital marketing services provided by Social Freak Ltd, according to G4Media information. To purchase customized comments, the client only needs to enter the link to the desired video and the comments.

Important: payment for Social Freak Ltd’s services can also be made through cryptocurrencies, a payment method that conceals the identity of the person who ordered the service.