Report shows large-scale operation targeting Romanian diaspora voters on TikTok ahead of elections

A report by cybersecurity company Refute uncovered a large-scale international influence operation targeting Romanian diaspora voters on TikTok ahead of the second round of Romania’s presidential elections on May 18.

The report identifies approximately 32,500 TikTok videos containing slogans promoting the populist candidate George Simion and former candidate Călin Georgescu. Many of these videos are inauthentic, such as videos that have been duplicated in a coordinated manner across dozens of accounts.

The videos these accounts produce deliberately target locations with large Romanian diaspora populations across Europe. Although only 24% of Romanian citizens live outside of Romania, 48% of the interactions with these videos (40 million likes and comments) came from outside the country. The countries with the highest share of interactions were the United Kingdom (15%), Italy (7%), Germany (7%), Spain (5%), and France (2%).

“The fact that nearly half of the interactions with videos promoting populist candidates come from outside Romania, double the percentage of Romanians living abroad, indicates that Romanian diaspora voters are being disproportionately targeted to influence the second round of the election,” said Vlad Galu, co-founder and CTO of Refute and originally from Romania.

“This surge in interactions from accounts based outside Romania could have a significant impact on Sunday’s election results,” he added in the press release.

AI-generated videos frequently include generic visuals unrelated to the political narratives mentioned in the audio. These videos are often copied and distributed by other accounts, including those created to imitate other users on the platform.

According to Refute, this is a tactic used by influencers who attempt to capture viewers’ attention through a specific visual while advancing particular narratives through the audio or “sound effect” of the video.

“We’ve already seen the use of influencers and bot farms in the November 2024 elections, but this is a new example of a sophisticated influence operation that transcends international borders to target Romanian voters abroad,” added Tom Garnett, co-founder and CEO of Refute.

In April, TikTok said that it launched an Election Center dedicated to Romania's presidential elections as part of its broader effort to protect "the integrity of the platform" and promote access to reliable information. The initiative is supported by a new media literacy campaign and ongoing collaboration with more than 20 fact-checking partners.

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