TikTok Teams Up with USAID-Funded Fact-Checker to Police Elections

What starts as “fact-checking” in Moldova could soon be used to silence dissent in America

When mainstream outlets like The Economist declare Moldova’s elections to be a flashpoint in “resisting Russia,” the narrative is already set. The framing is simple: pro-EU President Maia Sandu is the savior of “democracy,” while her opposition are little more than “disinformation agents.”

And naturally, censorship becomes the tool to engineer that outcome.

TikTok’s New Role in Election Policing

In a move that went largely unreported in Western press, TikTok recently announced that it will be partnering with a fact-checking outfit to monitor election content in Moldova.

The group? Stop Fals!, an organization bankrolled by USAID and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), among others.

TikTok’s official press release claimed it was all about “protecting the integrity of TikTok during the parliamentary elections in Moldova.” The app promised an “Election Center” with educational videos and guides on “spotting misinformation produced in partnership with Stop Fals!.

What TikTok doesn’t say outright: this “fact-checker” is funded and shaped by the very same U.S. government bureaucracies that have spent years tilting foreign elections under the guise of “democracy promotion.”

Who Really Funds Stop Fals?

Stop Fals! was launched in 2015 by the Independent Press Association (API). Its donor list reads like a who’s who of Western influence operations:

• USAID

• The U.S. Embassy in Moldova

• UNICEF

• The European Union

• The Open Information Partnership

• The National Democratic Institute (NDI)

These are not neutral players. The timing of USAID’s major grants - such as the $22.3 million “Consortium for Strengthening the Electoral and Political Process” - has consistently coincided with Moldova’s key elections, often ramping up in the months leading into contests where pro-EU candidates needed the boost.

For decades, USAID has branded itself as a neutral force for “democracy promotion.” In reality, its record shows a repeated pattern of intervening in foreign elections to suppress populist movements and tilt outcomes toward candidates aligned with Washington’s foreign policy objectives. Across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc, USAID grants have been funneled into media organizations, election monitors, and “civil society” groups that all seem to share one trait: hostility to anti-establishment candidates. The goal isn’t to create free and open elections, but to shape them in ways that guarantee favorable geopolitical outcomes.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in the ongoing conflict over Ukraine. Since 2014, USAID and its NGO partners have poured millions into neighboring countries to prop up pro-EU, pro-NATO politicians while undermining parties skeptical of Washington’s Ukraine-first policy. Candidates who question endless funding for Kyiv or who lean toward neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict are swiftly branded as “pro-Kremlin,” with USAID-backed fact-checkers and media projects ensuring their voices are marginalized.

This playbook has been repeated in places like Georgia, Moldova, and even within EU states on Russia’s periphery: flood the information space with “disinformation watchdogs,” tie populist movements to Moscow, and present U.S.-approved candidates as the only legitimate choice.

A Track Record of Bias

Independent reviews of Stop Fals!’s output make it clear: the fact-checker is anything but balanced. Over the past six months, nearly all of its published “fact-checks” have targeted the political opposition to Maia Sandu, with zero meaningful scrutiny applied to the ruling party.

Stop Fals! has even gone after politicians who raised concerns about LGBT propaganda or the erosion of Moldova’s Christian traditions, labeling such critiques as “disinformation.” In other words, it is acting as a cultural enforcer as much as an electoral referee.

The Bigger Picture: Bureaucrats Picking Winners

Consider the bigger picture. In July 2025, Maia Sandu herself warned of “unprecedented interference” by Russia in Moldova’s elections.

Earlier, Prime Minister Dorin Recean claimed Moscow had spent €200 million to “buy votes” in the 2024 presidential race and referendum.

Whether or not those claims hold water, what’s undeniable is that U.S. taxpayer-funded bureaucracies are inserting themselves directly into the information landscape of a foreign country’s election under the convenient cover of “countering Russia.”

But what happens when this same model is imported home?

Why This Matters for America

TikTok is already under fire in Washington as a Chinese Communist Party-controlled platform. Yet now, in Moldova, it is openly cooperating with USAID-funded groups to police political content.

If they can do this in Eastern Europe, what stops them from applying the same playbook to American elections? What happens when bureaucrats at USAID or their NGO cutouts decide that opposition to the ruling elite in the United States is also “disinformation”?

The precedent being set in Moldova is clear: Big Tech platforms, U.S. taxpayer-funded “democracy” agencies, and globalist NGOs working hand-in-hand to control what citizens can see and say during elections.

The bottom line: TikTok’s partnership with a USAID-funded fact-checker in Moldova isn’t just about Moldova. It’s a test run, a pilot program in outsourcing censorship to Washington’s bureaucratic empire. And if history is any guide, what they do abroad today will be exported back here tomorrow.