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Unmasking a Bot-Driven ...
Andrei Tiut
Lead Analyst
Voinea Madalina
Analyst
Sep 5, 2025
4 min read
Unmasking a Bot-Driven Infrastructure Fueling Anti-Democratic Narratives in Moldova
In early April 2025, a new Telegram presence emerged in Moldova under the name “Regim de Ipocrizie” (Regime of Hypocrisy). What initially appeared to be just another opposition voice quickly revealed itself to be more than a personal rant channel. By mid-May, the channel’s follower count had grown sharply, matched by the rollout of a Telegram bot designed to collect grievances about the Moldovan government.
In recent years, we've learned that recruitment schemes on Telegram don't necessarily rely on virality. Instead, their strength lies in gathering a specific, vulnerable audience who is more susceptible to manipulation and, ultimately, recruitment through tightly controlled propaganda channels.
Early warning capabilities are crucial in this regard, and this case presents a textbook example of why monitoring digital infrastructure, not just narratives, is essential.
What did we discover? Between April 1 and June 6, 2025, LetsData uncovered a tightly coupled infrastructure composed of a Telegram channel posting anti-government, anti-EU, and conspiratorial content, and an integrated Telegram chatbot named RegimDeIpocrizie_Bot promoted in-channel as a place to submit “evidence” of state abuse or censorship.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/24162195/
Together, this bot-channel pair enabled more than just messaging; it created a data funnel, capturing grievances in a way that could be repurposed for protests, social engineering, or future mobilization. In eight weeks, the Telegram channel amassed over 5,000 followers, with key posts, especially those linked to the bot, reaching up to 67,000 views, a 1071% spike over expected engagement levels, strongly suggesting inorganic amplification tactics.
The messaging strategy behind Regime de Ipocrizie is less about originality and more about volume and echo. It consistently recycles familiar anti-government tropes that already circulate in Russian-language opposition channels, amplifying them within the Moldovan context. These narratives, ranging from claims that the government uses security forces to silence dissent to allegations of media manipulation, diaspora exploitation, and reckless military spending, aren’t novel, but their repetition across multiple posts reinforces a sense of crisis and betrayal. By portraying Moldova’s pro-European leadership as hypocritical and sold to foreign agendas, the campaign systematically chips away at public trust in democratic institutions.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/24162548/
Tactics & Techniques - What’s the catch?
What sets this operation apart isn’t the messaging; it’s the system behind it. The coordinated use of a Telegram channel and bot created a scalable influence infrastructure, capable of pushing content while simultaneously harvesting user-submitted grievances.
In Moldova’s unique geopolitical situation, the information environment is highly under attack; such setups are more than propaganda, they’re early-stage systems of coordinated disruption. The Regim de Ipocrizie case illustrates how malign actors don’t just push content, they build systems.
LetsData’s early detection of this infrastructure, just weeks after its launch, enabled strategic partners to flag the bot’s intent, understand the message architecture, and assess the risk of mobilization. This kind of analysis gives democratic institutions the advanced visibility needed to counter not just what is being said, but how influence systems are being built and operated.
Monitoring these infrastructures is no longer optional; it’s a strategic necessity for anyone working to protect democratic resilience in the digital age.
