European Commission still investigating TikTok’s interference in Romania’s cancelled 2024 elections
The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, is still collecting “facts and data from all parties involved” in Romania’s cancelled 2024 presidential elections. The Commission originally opened the investigation into TikTok’s interference in the elections, and forced the platform to make some changes.
The investigation is now more than a year old, and reformist center-right members of the European Parliament from Romania, Vlad Voiculescu and Dan Barna, said that the European Commission’s reaction “remains unacceptably slow”.
The two MEPs inquired about the state of the investigation and received a response from the Commission. In it, the institution noted that it “remains fully committed to the rigorous enforcement of the obligations of the Digital Services Act (DSA)” but mentioned that “investigations are still ongoing, with the Commission currently collecting facts and data from all parties involved and reviewing the available evidence.”
The same response, signed by Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, said that the body “closely monitored” what changes TikTok made after the 2024 elections and “during the elections in Romania in May 2025.” It also collaborated with Romanian state institutions in the same period.
“ANCOM, as the Digital Services Coordinator in Romania, organized in March 2025 an electoral roundtable and a stress test, bringing together national authorities, online platforms, and civil society organizations. These meetings facilitated the exchange of information among stakeholders on election-related issues, strengthened situational awareness, and allowed online platforms to test their level of preparedness,” the same source added.
Moreover, the Commission reminded that it “opened formal proceedings against X, Meta, and TikTok under the DSA, concerning systemic risks to electoral processes and civic discourse” following the 2024 elections. These acts led to a series of measures on the part of TikTok to better detect and label political accounts.
USR MEPs Vlad Voiculescu and Dan Barna said that the European Commission’s “slowness of reaction” is “a danger to democracy.”
“The fact that Ursula von der Leyen confirms to us today, in 2026, that investigations are open and that data is being ‘collected’ about the elections of 2024 and 2025 shows a systemic fault line. Although TikTok announced specific measures, including a team of 120 experts for the elections in Romania, the effects of disinformation have already occurred. We need rapid response mechanisms, not post-factum findings,” Dan Barna said, quoted in USR’s press release.
TikTok reveleaved in a 2025 report that in December 2024, a network of 27,217 accounts operating through a fake engagement provider attempted to promote the AUR political party and independent candidate Călin Georgescu by posting comments on a large scale.
(Photo source: Alkan2011 | Dreamstime.com)
