Roundup: What’s going on in Romania?

Romania isn’t often a country at the forefront of tech policy discussions, but this past week it was thrown into the limelight after the rapid ascension of ultranationalist, far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu won the first round on November 24. He’ll face Elena Lasconi in the second round next Sunday.

Romanian authorities charge his rise is the result of manipulation on TikTok, where thousands of fake accounts were used to circulate campaign videos the election authority told Georgescu to remove, prompting questions of foreign funding being used to push him over other candidates, influencers not labeling their content as paid political advertising (which is not allowed in TikTok), and TikTok’s apparent refusal to act. (TikTok denies those claims).

Here’s how the Financial Times explained it:

The European Commission on Wednesday said that Romania’s national media watchdog has requested an official investigation by the Brussels-based regulator into TikTok, after a far-right candidate, Călin Georgescu, who had become viral on the Chinese platform, unexpectedly topped the first round of the presidential vote on Sunday.

The Romanian complaint alleges that TikTok’s algorithms “amplified” Georgescu’s content to the detriment of other candidates, said the regulator’s vice-president Valentin-Alexandru Jucan.

Romanian officials quickly asked the European Union to intervene, since TikTok is regulated under the Digital Services Act. The European Commission is now mediating between the two parties as top Romanian national security officials charge there were also cyberattacks targeting the election as they build the picture of a broader campaign to affect the outcome of the presidential election. They suggest Russia is behind it.

TikTok is used by 8 million people in the nation of 19 million, meaning it can be used to have significant sway on voters who’ve soured on traditional media sources, particularly young people — something we’ve seen play out in numerous elections that have happened so far this year. Politico EU described the core of the allegations:

The catchy TikTok clips that powered Georgescu's unexpected surge were accompanied by dramatic music and subtitles. He was shown barely breaking a sweat on the running track, flipping opponents in judo — à la Putin — and riding a white horse in a traditional Romanian shirt. […]

Romania's Supreme Council of Defense found cyberattacks had attempted to swing the election, and strongly suggested that Russia could have played a role.

Specifically, the council said in a statement that TikTok had failed to mark one unnamed candidate — presumed to be Georgescu — as an electoral candidate, meaning his videos weren’t categorized under an election code, as required by Romanian law. This increased his visibility significantly, the council said, and had an impact on the final result in contravention of the rules.

So, what should we make of all this? I’m always worried to see the rise of far-right candidates, but by now we have plenty of examples of establishment parties pointing to social media manipulation (often with some link to Russian interference) as the reason for their declining support instead of probing how the public has (often rightfully) become disillusioned with the politics they’re offering. I don’t know enough about Romania to know where this case falls, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s somewhere in the middle.

It doesn’t appear that TikTok intentionally manipulated its algorithms to promote Georgescu, but rather that actors took advantage of the way its platform is designed to get the results they were expecting — not unlike how Russian actors didn’t actually “hack” the 2016 US election. For now it’s worth watching to see where the Romanian case goes.

This week in the roundup, find some recommended reads on a possible Trump antitrust appointment, what Elon Musk will mean for China policy, and the final arguments in the latest Google antitrust trial. Plus, labor updates and other stories you might have missed this week.

I was on CBC Front Burner this week to talk about that Google antitrust trial. On Tech Won’t Save Us, I interviewed MV Ramana about the problems with the tech industry’s claims nuclear power will be the solution to their energy demand for data centers and AI.

Have a great week!

— Paris