(Bloomberg) -- The European Union started an investigation of TikTok over suspicions that it didn’t do enough to stop fake accounts and foreign powers from interfering with last month’s Romanian presidential election.
The probe will look at whether the short-video app failed to prevent bad actors from manipulating its recommendation system and if it appropriately labeled political content under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, the European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.
A TikTok-driven social-media campaign propelled a pro-Russia candidate, Calin Georgescu, from obscurity to victory in the first round of Romania’s election last month. The country’s top court voided the results over allegations of foreign meddling, ordering a repeat of the vote and sparking political turmoil in the European Union member state.
Romanian security agencies, which blamed Russia for an alleged hybrid attack, had accused TikTok of failing to label the candidate’s videos as election material. Following the outcry over Georgescu’s victory, the commission asked TikTok for information on how the platform “analyzed and mitigated the risk of inauthentic or automated exploitation of its service” and for a response to the Romanian findings, according to a Dec. 5 statement.
TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. are coming under increasing regulatory scrutiny around the world over misinformation and security concerns. The social media platform is facing a ban in the US that takes effect on Jan. 19 unless ByteDance sells it.
The company is also facing a separate DSA probe over its addictive design and alleged failure to protect minors who use the platform. Breaches of the EU’s law regulating online platforms carry the risk of a fine of as much as 6% of a firm’s global yearly sales.
Police raided the homes of some Georgescu supporters in the days after the court’s decision. They’ve detained a businessman in possession of $7 million in cryptocurrencies and halted a group of armed mercenaries from allegedly provoking unrest in Bucharest.
A representative for TikTok said the company provided the commission with “extensive information” regarding its efforts to address challenges around elections and continued to work with the EU as well as local authorities.
TikTok said Tuesday in an update to an earlier blog post that it has updated its in-app Election Center to link to the official Electoral Commission’s website and that it has “disrupted” influence networks related to the election.
The networks include one of more than 4,000 accounts operated from Turkey that targeted Romanian audiences to promote the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians party and Georgescu, who ran as an independent.
(Updates with background on US ban in fifth paragraph.)
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