The agency’s Disinformation Analysis Centre flagged the suspicious activity and alerted Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW), prompting the removal of the ads.
The ads, which appeared to support one presidential candidate while attacking others, were shown to users in Poland and were backed by advertising accounts that spent more money over the past week than any official election committee, NASK said in a statement on Wednesday.
The campaigns in question focused on candidates Rafał Trzaskowski, Karol Nawrocki, and Sławomir Mentzen.
According to NASK, the operation may have been a deliberate provocation designed to harm the candidate it appeared to support and to destabilise the pre-election environment.
The accounts responsible have been reported to Meta, the owner of Facebook.
“This is not the first such incident,” said NASK head Radosław Nielek during the Impact conference in the western city of Poznań.
He added that NASK and the ABW have been closely cooperating throughout the election campaign to monitor incidents that could impact the vote.
On Wednesday afternoon, NASK confirmed that Meta had blocked the ads in response to its intervention, describing the move as part of the government’s so-called "election umbrella" initiative — a cross-agency strategy to safeguard the electoral process.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called for an urgent investigation into the case and warned of ongoing Russian disinformation efforts.
"Russia carries out such operations every day in Western countries to destabilise them," he said.
Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski revealed that hundreds of thousands of zlotys had been spent on Meta platforms promoting content related to several presidential candidates — spending that had not been authorised by any registered campaign committee.
“We said months ago that we would be monitoring suspicious financial flows under the election umbrella — and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” Gawkowski said.
He added that Poland’s national cyber defence systems are fully engaged and that the state responded quickly and effectively.
Lower-house Speaker and centre-right presidential candidate Szymon Hołownia, commented: “NASK says that in the case of some candidates, this may be a provocation — an attempt to escalate chaos. An attempt to get us to start accusing each other of running election campaigns with illicit funds."
Hołownia added: "That’s why, in order to clear up any doubts, I believe this matter should be thoroughly investigated. Everyone should clearly account for the actions of their campaign team and the money they are spending.”
Poland’s presidential election is set for Sunday, May 18, with 13 candidates on the ballot.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP