Mediapoint launched the Preliminary report on Monitoring the Presidential Elections on Social Media.The research was conducted jointly by two organizations, Mediapoint (Republic of Moldova) and MEMO 98 (Slovak Republic). The purpose of this monitoring is to establish the impact and role of social networks in the electoral process and the election campaign.

For this report, experts from Mediapoint and MEMO 98 analyzed 4220 posts from social media, belonging to 15 political parties and 16 politicians. In total, their posts generated over 2.8 million interactions from citizens.

In this report you will find out:
- Top of the most active political actors in the electoral and pre-electoral period;
- Top 20 issues most often addressed by political actors in the election and pre-election period;
- Top of the topics that generated the most reactions from citizens;
- The amount of money spent by political actors for advertising on social, political and electoral topics on social media;
- Social networks most often used by political actors in promoting electoral messages;
- The subjects that triggered the most negative reactions from the citizens;
- Presence or absence of COVID-19 issues in politicians' speeches and posts;
- The tone of voice used by politicians in posts: positive, negative, neutral;
- Presidential candidates who have gathered the most positive and negative reactions on social networks.
- Case studies on derogatory and false posts addressed to candidates.

For more information, please access the full monitoring report. There you will find additional details, figures, analyzes, infographics, photos and qualitative and quantitative summaries of the research.

The monitoring was carried out between 01.09.2020 - 24.10.2020 and includes preliminary information about the use of social media during the electoral campaign. The final report will be made public after the presidential elections.

The report was produced with the financial support of SlovakAid (Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation) and the National Endowment for Democracy. Mediapoint is the first new media organization in the Republic of Moldova. It was founded in 2009 and has the mission to innovate democracy by involving citizens and unlocking the potential of technology. MEMO 98 is an internationally recognized, independent, and non-profit specialist media institution with 22 year-long experience of conducting media monitoring and research and assisting civil society groups.