TikTok removed 3 influence campaigns during Romania’s elections

TikTok recently dismantled several networks of accounts that had tried to interfere with elections in Romania, executives said Tuesday, with some removed as late as Friday.

The social media company testified before the European Parliament on Tuesday to counter allegations that it hadn’t properly handled political content tied to the ongoing presidential election in Romania. The first round, held last month, led to a surprise win for an ultranationalist candidate with a strong TikTok presence.

TikTok’s executives revealed it had taken down what it said were two campaigns targeted at Romanian voters and one known campaign which it previously tied to the Kremlin-backed media outlet Sputnik and that had cropped up again on its platform.

All these campaigns were disrupted on Friday Nov. 29, it said — in between the presidential election’s first round and the parliamentary vote on Sunday Dec. 1.

Two attempts were launched out of Romania itself, TikTok said. One network of 78 accounts with 1,781 followers tried to promote ultranationalist and far-right Călin Georgescu, and another of 12 accounts attempted to boost independent candidate Mircea Geoană.

The networks were “very, very small networks” launched out of Romania, targeting a Romanian audience, said Brie Pegum, TikTok’s global head of product for authenticity and transparency.

The Sputnik campaign included 11 accounts with close to 140,000 followers. TikTok said the takedown was part of a regular sweep and not necessarily linked to Romania. Sputnik was banned on the platform because of interference attempts, but new accounts are set up regularly.

In September, TikTok already disrupted a network of 22 accounts that sought to target Romanian audiences with misinformation and “promote narratives critical of the current Romanian government,” the company said at the time.

TikTok is being scrutinized for its handling of the first round of the Romanian presidential election, which propelled ultranationalist and far-right Călin Georgescu to victory, partly thanks to a late, explosive surge in view counts of his TikTok content.

TikTok vehemently defended its election approach during the European Parliament hearing. Caroline Greer, the company’s top lobbyist in Brussels, said the company had 95 Romanian content moderators, and claimed this was a larger number of local moderators than other platforms.

Researchers and regulators have expressed suspicions that networks of fake accounts or paid influencers helped boost Georgescu’s messaging on the platform.

Romanian authorities have asked the European Commission to investigate whether the company complies with EU social media law, which stipulates that companies have to assess and mitigate risks to the integrity of elections. The Commission sent TikTok questions as part of an ongoing probe into the company’s content moderation policies and is expecting an answer by mid-December.