Romania shocked the world last month when it voted for an outsider with ultranationalist views as president. Călin Georgescu was polling poorly just weeks before the election. TikTok was crucial to his sudden success. It also appears to have been a key facilitator of foreign interference from Russia.
Romania’s constitutional court has since opted to annul the results of the first election round. All eyes are once more on social media platforms and their ability to influence election outcomes. Until now, extraordinary discretion has been left to the companies curating our information ecosystem — Romania may turn the tide.
Suspicious online accounts, polls and paid influencers sharing political content are all seen as key online tools for influencing Romanian votes.
Within the country, intelligence services have accused Russia of aggressively using TikTok to promote Georgescu. The US state department describes “malign cyber activity”. In Europe, the Digital Services Act (DSA) has been invoked to impose a “retention order” that demands TikTok preserve all data related to European elections for scrutiny. A company representative for TikTok emphasised its compliance with EU law in a recent hearing before the European parliament.