Slovakia’s decision to put aside a “lone wolf” theory regarding the May 15 assassination attempt against their Prime Minister Robert Fico has attracted the full attention of the West’s ‘disinformation warriors’ over the last 24 hours. In particular, Slovakia’s Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj-Eštok, on May 19, cited the deletion of the Facebook and social media presence of the gunman, Juraj Cintula, within the first two hours of the shooting and the fact that the operative had to be someone other than Cintula or his wife. They are investigating whether a support group amplifying hatred and violence against Fico drove Cintula to the assassination attempt.
Three days later, Meta told Euractiv (May 22) that it was they who took down Cintula’s Facebook account, though they curiously can’t say at what time they did so—only that it was sometime on the night of the shooting. ("On the night of the incident, in accordance with its policy, Meta deleted the account…") However, Fico was shot at 2:35, local time in Slovakia, in the afternoon. There is no way that Meta’s account squares with the deletion of Cintula’s account by 4:35 in Slovakia, which is long before dark in Slovakia (and much longer before dark at Meta’s California headquarters). Meta also states that they it was another ‘shortly’ after their deletion that they notified Slovak authorities, and again they refrain to specify how long this took. Yet, Euractiv writes: “Meta told Euractiv that no one else was involved in the removal of the perpetrator’s account and it was the company that deleted it.”
