(Bloomberg) -- TikTok executives said the social media platform removed a network covertly campaigning for Calin Georgescu, whose shock victory in the Nov. 24 presidential election threw the country into the biggest political crisis since the fall of communism.
The platform identified two small clusters of accounts that were fueling support for two candidates in the first round of the Romanian presidential election, the executives told European lawmakers on Tuesday in Brussels.
The accounts, which TikTok removed Friday, failed to disclose their affiliation in violation of the platform’s rules forbidding political advertising, the executives said. They had been fanning support for Georgescu and another independent candidate, former NATO deputy chief Mircea Geoana.
“It’s essential that we have an authentic experience on the platform — we take it very seriously,” Brie Pegum, TikTok’s head of product for authenticity and transparency, told the panel of lawmakers.
Georgescu, who had languished in the single digits in pre-election polling, emerged from obscurity to win the first round and eliminated Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. Romanian security officials warned Georgescu’s formidable TikTok following was a sign of foreign meddling, pointing the finger at Moscow, and said it represented a risk to national security.
Pegum, who attended the hearing alongside TikTok’s director of government relations Caroline Greer, said the bigger of the two networks backed Georgescu and consisted of 78 accounts with a combined following of 1,781. That network operated from Romania and targeted a Romanian audience, according to TikTok. The one that backed Geoana included a dozen accounts.
Romania’s Constitutional Court validated the first round after it ordered a recount, clearing the way for a Dec. 8 runoff in which Georgescu will run against opposition leader Elena Lasconi.
The prospect that Georgescu could become Romania’s head of state has rattled European Union and NATO allies. The candidate has questioned the country’s membership in NATO and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was ejected from Romania’s biggest far-right party for celebrating the country’s World War II Nazi-allied leadership.
The EU on Friday convened a meeting between Romanian communications watchdogs and social media companies, including TikTok, to discuss the safeguards each platform had in place ahead of the upcoming vote. The EU also sent TikTok a request for information about its handling of information manipulation under the bloc’s content moderation rulebook.
Romania’s Supreme Defense Council, which includes top government and intelligence officials, said that one candidate — it didn’t name Georgescu — benefited from “massive exposure and preferential treatment.” The panel explicitly cited Russian influence operations seeking to shift public opinion as a factor.
TikTok then responded that it was “categorically false” to claim that it treated Georgescu’s account differently from other candidates.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.