After the election in Romania

EU Commission tightens regulations for TikTok

Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of the presidential election in Romania at the end of November.(Bild: AFP/Mihai Barbu)

TikTok must store user data until further notice for investigations into possible interference in the Romanian presidential elections. The European Commission announced on Thursday that it had issued a so-called retention order. This is based on the Digital Services Act, which obliges online companies to take action against disinformation, among other things.

On Wednesday, the Romanian secret service warned that the country had become the target of an "aggressive Russian hybrid attack". The far-right and pro-Russian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu had been massively promoted via the short video platform TikTok with the help of coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid advertising.

According to Georgescu, he did not spend any funds on this campaign. The secret service also recorded 85,000 hacker attacks in connection with the election. Access data for official Romanian election websites, which circulated on relevant Russian online forums, was apparently also captured.

Surprisingly first
Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of the presidential election in the EU and NATO member state at the end of November, having previously only achieved single-digit poll results. Current surveys suggest that he could beat his center-right opponent, Elena Lasconi from the centrist party, by a large margin in the run-off.

If he receives the most votes on December 8, experts believe he will turn the country away from its pro-European course. In the Romanian parliamentary elections last Sunday, far-right parties, which often have sympathies for Russia, also performed well.

Affair calls politics into action
The US State Department expressed concern about possible foreign influence. Romania's hard-earned ties to the West should not be jeopardized by foreign actors. This would have negative consequences for cooperation on security issues and foreign investment in the country.

The case had already been brought before the European Parliament a few days ago, where TikTok managers had to answer questions from MEPs. The subsidiary of the Chinese company ByteDance referred to its efforts to curb misinformation. For example, there are 95 Romanian-speaking content moderators. Dozens of fake user accounts have also been tracked down.