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Romania’s telecoms regulator is asking for TikTok to be suspended as the country’s defence council prepares to discuss cyber risks to its elections, after a little-known ultranationalist came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential vote.
The country’s constitutional court will also examine two allegations of electoral fraud after Călin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly, EU-sceptic and anti-Nato independent, topped the ballot in a result that upended Romanian politics.
Georgescu was polling at barely 5% days before Sunday’s vote but surged to a shock victory with a campaign heavily based on viral TikTok videos that were reportedly boosted by bot-like activity, raising fears of possible external interference.
The far-right candidate, who has claimed Nato would never help Romania and called for an end to the war in Ukraine, scored almost 23% and will face pro-EU centrist Elena Lasconi in the second round on 8 December after parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Georgescu, a sustainable development expert, has also denied the existence of Covid-19, described two second world war-era Romanian fascists as “national heroes” and claimed that in foreign affairs Romania would benefit from “Russian wisdom”.
The deputy head of the country’s telecoms regulator, Ancom, said on Wednesday it was calling for the suspension of TikTok, a China-owned platform, from Thursday, pending an investigation into possible election manipulation, profit.ro reported.
“I request the suspension of TikTok on the territory of Romania until the completion of the investigation by state institutions regarding the manipulation of the electoral process of the first round of the presidential elections,” Pavel Popescu said.
He added that he was asking for the suspension “on the basis of … some evidence regarding the manipulation of the electoral process by the platform.”
The national defence council, chaired by the outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, said it would analyse “possible risks to national security generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber actors on infrastructures supporting the electoral process”.
The country’s national audiovisual council, CNA, has also called on the European Commission to investigate TikTok’s role, saying it suspected “manipulation of public opinion” and “algorithmic amplification” of posts favouring a particular candidate.
TikTok has dismissed the CNA’s allegations. A spokesperson said: “These reports are inaccurate and misleading, as most candidates have established a TikTok presence and the winners campaigned on other digital platforms beyond ours.”
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Two candidates knocked out in the first round, Sebastian Popescu and Cristian Terheș, have further asked the country’s constitutional court to annul the first round result on the grounds that Georgescu did not declare any campaign funding sources.
Georgescu, who left the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) after it criticised his pro-Russia, anti-Nato stance, has not responded to the complaints but has previously said he had no campaign budget and all the work was done by volunteers.
Romania has been a reliable EU and Nato ally since emerging from communism in 1989 and plays a strategic role in western support for Ukraine, hosting a military base, donating an air defence battery and providing a vital transit route for Ukrainian grain.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Georgescu insisted he did not want Romania to leave Nato or the EU. “What I want, however, is to take a stance, not to kneel over there, not to take everything. Like I said, we should do everything in our national interest,” he said.
