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Accusations of Russian interference in the elections in Romania, the EU orders the freezing of TikTok data

Politiko 2024-12-05 17:08:33

Accusations of Russian interference in the elections in Romania, the EU orders

The European Union has ordered TikTok to freeze all data, following reports that the Chinese-owned social networking platform was instrumental in implementing a campaign orchestrated by Moscow to influence Romania's presidential and parliamentary elections.

Romania's Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) on December 4 declassified documents that said the country was the target of an "aggressive Russian hybrid operation" that led to the surprise victory last month of pro-Russian far-right candidate Calin Georgescu in the first round of the presidential elections.

CSAT said the documents showed that Romania, a member of the EU and NATO, was the target of several coordinated actions, likely orchestrated by a "state actor" that led to Georgescu's victory in the Nov. 24 election. who ran as an independent.

The European Commission - the EU's executive arm - said on December 5 that it had issued a "retention order" to TikTok under the Digital Services Act to preserve data "relating to actual or foreseeable risks that the service he can present to the electoral processes and the civil discourse in the EU", said the EC through a statement.

The EC added that this order was necessary to investigate whether TikTok is complying with obligations arising from the Digital Services Act. According to the published documents, Romanian intelligence services believe that Georgescu was massively promoted on TikTok, with the support of Russia through various methods, including coordinated accounts, algorithms that increased his presence on the platform and paid advertising.

The documents also claim to explain how Georgescu's popularity rose from 1 percent just before the election race to 22 percent, through a major manipulation operation involving influencers, wooing Romanian institutions as well as ordinary voters.

Parliamentary elections, held a week later, also saw the rise of three far-right pro-Russian parties, which took a third of the vote, although pro-European parties appear to have enough votes to form a governing coalition.

On December 8, voters will decide on the winner of the presidential elections and in the run-off round, Georgescu will face the pro-European candidate, Elena Lasconi. Before the runoff round, the United States called for an investigation into Moscow's actions in the elections in Romania./ REL

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