Platform that has a significant impact on elections: the European Commission is asked to launch an official investigation into TikTok

Romania's National Broadcasting Council CNA is asking the European Commission to launch an official investigation into the TikTok social network over the platform's role in the Romanian Presidential election, writes UNN with reference to Digi.24 and Politico.

Details

Colin Giorgescu's victory in the first round of the Romanian election caused a lot of concern because of how the TikTok platform managed to "bring an unknown candidate out of obscurity.

As noted by the vice president of the National Broadcasting Council (CNA)  Valentin Alexandru Jukan, the actions of the Chinese social network raised "suspicions of manipulating public opinion due to improper use of the platform.

In one of his Facebook posts, Valentin Alexandra Djugan pointed out that independent candidate Celin Giorgescu has a significant increase in Preferences from 2% to 22%. The vice president of the CNA also claims that this can be explained by the TikTok campaign, which is based on "coordinating accounts that actively promoted election content, without proper tags" and "artificially amplifying messages using algorithms, using special hashtags such as #verticalbalance, which has a lot of views.

Valentin Dzhugan believes that in this way the Tik Tok platform is not used properly to manipulate the public.

Тож Цна звернулись до Європейської комісії, Генерального директорату з комунікаційних мереж, контенту та технологій (ДГ), а правовою основою є Регламент (ЄС) 2022/2065 про цифрові послуги (закон про цифрові послуги - ДСА).

Valentin Jukan adds that the CNA has observed non-compliance with obligations to assess systemic risks (provisions of Article 34 of the DSA). He said that even though TikTok says it does not allow paid political advertising, the analysis shows that the platform still allowed indirect links to political messages through influencers without the appropriate tags.

In addition, the CNA vice president notes that "TikTok's actions had a significant impact on the 2024 presidential election in Romania, the first round, contributing to: creating an unfair advantage for a single candidate; manipulating public opinion through unmarked content; exploiting young users who make up the majority of TikTok's audience."

Currently, the EU is demanding that the executive director of TikTok appear before the European Parliament to answer questions about the platform's role in the presidential elections in Romania. Because there is a suspicion of secret activity on the platform of thousands of fake accounts before voting.

"We call on TikTok's CEO to come to speak at this house and make sure that its platform does not violate the DSA," Valerie Haer, chairman of the liberal group Renew Europe, said at a press conference, referring to the Digital Services Act, the European set of rules for online content.

She made this statement two days after the victory of the pro-Russian candidate. It is worth noting that Caelin Giorgescu did not have any party support, and the results of polls showed that he did not have popularity. Now, however, the researchers are focused on a large company in Tik Tok, which he headed a few days before the election.

The participation of Russia or other state structures has not yet been confirmed by any evidence

"Although paid political advertising is prohibited under TikTok's terms and conditions, this time the rule was' largely ineffective, ' "said Keith Keely, coordinator of the Bulgarian— Romanian digital media Observatory.

He also added that the platform had a "significant impact" on the elections.

We remind you

Tik-Tokoperations owned by China raise national security concerns , FBI Director Chris Ray said, noting the risk that the Chinese government could use the video sharing app as a means of influencing users or controlling devices.