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The election case

Romania, TikTok under indictment for election manipulation

European Commission investigates TikTok for its alleged responsibility in spreading disinformation during the Romanian elections

by Silvia Martelli (Il Sole 24 Ore) and Petr Jedlicka (Denik Referendum, Romania)

19 December 2024

Calin Georgescu. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS

3' min read

Brussels threatened to open an investigation into TikTok for the social media's alleged failure to prevent the dissemination of disinformation and unauthorised campaigning during last week's Romanian elections, in violation of the European Digital Services Regulation.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that Romania's national media watchdog had requested an official investigation into TikTok by the Brussels-based regulator, after a far-right candidate, Călin Georgescu, who had gone viral on the Chinese platform, unexpectedly won the first round of Sunday's presidential vote. The Romanian complaint alleges that TikTok's algorithms 'amplified' Georgescu's content to the detriment of other candidates.

Companies that violate the Digital Services Regulation risk penalties of up to 6 per cent of their annual global turnover. TikTok, owned by ByteDance, had an annual turnover of USD 110 billion in 2023.

The preferential treatment of Tik Tok

On 28 November, a meeting of the Supreme National Defence Council (CSAT) took place in Romania, chaired by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis. During the meeting, representatives of the authorities responsible for defence, public order, and national security presented assessments of the possible risks to national security from the actions of state and non-state cyber actors, which have affected certain IT&C infrastructures supporting the electoral process. The Supreme National Defence Council has no direct competence in the conduct of the electoral process, but if elements emerge that may compromise national security, it has a duty to meet and analyse these issues.

According to the documents presented, the Council members noted the existence of cyber attacks aimed at influencing the fairness of the electoral process. It was also confirmed that, in the current regional security context and, in particular, in the election context, Romania, along with other states on NATO's eastern flank, has become a priority target of hostile actions by state and non-state actors. Among these, the Russian Federation stands out for its growing interest in attempting to influence the public agenda of Romanian society and social cohesion.

The analysis of the documents also revealed that, in violation of electoral regulations, the presidential election candidate Georgescu benefited from massive exposure thanks to the preferential treatment given to him by the TikTok platform. The latter did not identify him as a political candidate, nor did it request that the election videos be marked with the unique identification code assigned by the Permanent Electoral Authority when appointing the coordinating financial agent, an obligation required by electoral legislation.

As a result, Georgescu's visibility increased significantly compared to his opponents, who were recognised by TikTok's algorithms as participants in the presidential election. The content promoted by the latter was thus massively filtered out, exponentially reducing their visibility among the platform's users.

This preferential treatment was aggravated by TikTok's failure to comply with the rules given by the Central Electoral Office (BEC) before the official start of the election campaign (27 September 2024) to ensure transparency and fairness. One of the main decisions concerned the obligation for candidates and their supporters to clearly mark all election material. To do so, each candidate had to obtain a unique identification code, assigned by the BEC, to be applied to any election content posted online. In addition, platforms such as TikTok were required to identify candidates as political actors and to treat their content in accordance with Romanian electoral laws. This included monitoring and enforcing restrictions on content sponsorship and promotion to avoid unfair advantages among election participants.

The CSAT therefore ruled that TikTok did not comply with the legal regulations governing the electoral process, affecting the final result of the elections. In light of these violations, and considering the significant impact that the platform's algorithms had on the visibility of the candidates, the Constitutional Tribunal of Romania decided to invalidate the first round of the presidential elections, originally held on 24 November 2024. The decision was made following an appeal filed by the BEC.

The invalidation of the vote meant that the first round had to be repeated, with stricter measures to ensure transparency and compliance with electoral rules. In addition, the Romanian authorities requested TikTok to implement the BEC regulations immediately. Currently, the Romanian authorities have not yet set a new date for the elections.

*This article is part of the Pulse project and was written by Silvia Martelli (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy) with contributions from Petr Jedlicka (Denik Referendum, Romania).

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