An internal audit of Tik Tok reveals that the social network was used to influence Romanian users during the 2024 presidential elections, reported BGNES.

This was revealed in detail in a report sent to the European Commission under the EU's Digital Services Act. Tik Tok claims to have dismantled six secret influence peddling networks. One of these networks, deleted in December 2024, contained 27,217 accounts and sought to promote the interests of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) and Kalin Giurgescu. The far-right party of Giorghe Simion came 2nd in the parliamentary elections, doubling its previous result, and the independent candidate of AUR topped the first round of the presidential elections to everyone's surprise.

"This network was run by a fictitious engagement provider and was targeted at a Romanian audience. The people behind this network used inauthentic accounts to promote the political party AUR and the independent candidate Calin Giurgescu in order to manipulate the discourse of the Romanian elections. This campaign relied on posting comments rather than videos," the Tik Tok report detailed.

On 24 November 2024, the result of the first round of the Romanian presidential election was surprising, putting the far-right candidate, Calin Giurgescu, ahead. The election was subsequently annulled by the Constitutional Court, citing suspicions of Russian interference. In early March, Kalin Djordjesku was barred from standing for re-election in May, recalls RSE.

Other networks deleted include one that spread disinformation and promoted material critical of the Romanian government, and another that disseminated Romanian-language news favorable to pro-Western independent candidate Mircea Joane, a former leader of the Social Democratic Party.

According to documents declassified by the Romanian secret services in December, Romania was the target of "aggressive Russian hybrid actions" on the day and night of the first round of the presidential elections. They also mention the existence of a Tik Tok network of 25 000 accounts linked to the campaign of Calin Giurgescu, which "became very active two weeks before the election date".

According to the G4media website, the Romanian Prosecutor General's Office has also requested Turkey's assistance in investigating the troll farm. These trolls were allegedly using IP addresses in Turkey and messaging services in Russia. These accounts posted 2.1 million comments promoting Giurgescu on Tik Tok in the run-up to the first round of Romania's presidential election.

The Tik Tok report also pointed out irregularities in advertising on the platform and said it had removed 2,743 ads in the four weeks before the vote. With this information, the Chinese social network intends to demonstrate its commitment to transparency after Romania briefly threatened to stop using it in December. I BGNES