Romania’s president summons defense council over cyber election interference risk

BUCHAREST — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will hold a meeting Thursday with the country’s top national security officials to discuss possible risks “generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber actors” in ongoing elections in the country for both the presidency and the parliament.

The meeting of the country’s Supreme Council of Defense, which Iohannis called on Wednesday, comes after Romanian authorities notified the European Commission the previous day of irregularities on social media platform TikTok during the Nov. 24 first round of the presidential election. 

Romania’s president chairs the council, which also includes the prime minister, the defense minister and the heads of the country’s intelligence services.

While Iohannis did not specifically name TikTok when calling Thursday’s meeting, the platform is under pressure to explain how it handled political content in Romania after a first round presidential vote on Sunday propelled ultranationalist, Russian-admiring independent candidate Călin Georgescu to a shock victory, in part thanks to his sudden surge on TikTok.

A parliamentary election takes place this Sunday in Romania, with the presidential runoff following on Dec. 8.

Georgescu has said he isn’t supported by Russia, and accused Romania’s top political parties of trying to turn people against him out of revenge after he vanquished their candidates in the Sunday election.