Misinformation is not absent in Moldova, but its sources are located in state and commercial mainstream media. Smaller websites have a hard time to survive.
The misinformation business in Romania is elusive and difficult to measure, but click-bait content, which is funded mostly by advertising, is the norm.
Romania’s media market seems vibrant and diverse, but in reality, the local environment hardly enables independent journalism to thrive. Independent journalism survives thanks to a string of small online outlets that are struggling financially and grappling with a low level of trust and a public unwilling to pay for media content.
In a country where media heavily rely on government funding and informal payments, there can’t be much independent reporting. Kyrgyz journalists attest to that.
Facebook appears to be the almost exclusive source of traffic for Hungarian misinformation websites, which fall on the spectrum from purely ideological sites to simple money-making machines. Their Facebook pages are stable, directing users to their ever-changing URLs.
The Slovak misinformation industry is growing fast, buoyed by ads and e-commerce, but many people support them directly, too, through donations or tax designations.
