On Monday, April 7, EU Commissioner for Technology Henna Virkkune told members of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) of the European Parliament that TikTok has made internal changes in an attempt to protect the Romanian presidential elections from foreign interference. 

The European Commission opened an investigation into the Chinese platform last December, after the cancellation of the first round of voting by the Romanian Constitutional Court. The EU executive looked into whether TikTok violated the Digital Services Act, which governs illegal content, funding transparency, and disinformation.

The changes “include better detection and labeling of political accounts, more Romanian language experts, and another 120 experts in the electoral task force in Romania, who are especially working on covert influence campaigns and ad integrity,” said Virkkunen.

In reply, the committee members emphasized that regulators must continue to monitor and ensure that digital platforms comply with EU electoral security standards. 

The first round of elections in Romania last November was canceled based on intelligence reports which showed that Russia had influenced voters through social media to support the extremist candidate Călin Georgescu. The pro-Russian politician was virtually unknown before he became very popular on TikTok shortly before the vote. 

radu@romania-insider.com

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