TikTok CEO summoned by European Parliament after surprising first-round presidential victory of Călin Georgescu in Romania
The surprise first-round victory of political outsider Călin Georgescu in the first round of the presidential elections sent shockwaves throughout Romania and Europe, leading to Valérie Hayer, head of the liberal Renew Europe group,…
Radu Dumitrescu · Journalist
· Updated · 4 min read
The surprise first-round victory of political outsider Călin Georgescu in the first round of the presidential elections sent shockwaves throughout Romania and Europe, leading to Valérie Hayer, head of the liberal Renew Europe group, calling TikTok CEO to come before the European Parliament and answer questions.
Călin Georgescu obtained roughly 23% of votes in the November 24 elections, followed by reformist candidate Elena Lasconi (USR) with 19.17%. Virtually unknown although active in politics for decades, Georgescu based his campaign on TikTok, rising in popularity sharply in a few weeks despite allegedly having no party backing or funding. And this has raised questions about how the social media app boosted the Romanian candidate's chances to winning the elections.
"We call on the CEO of TikTok to come to speak in this house and to ensure his platform conducted to no infringement under the DSA," Valérie Hayer, head of the liberal Renew Europe group, said during a press conference, referring to the Digital Services Act, Europe's rulebook for online content.
"Romania is a warning bell: radicalization and disinformation can happen all over Europe with harmful consequences," added Hayer, an ally of French president Emmanuel Macron, cited by Politico.
Campaign Funding Suspicions
Călin Georgescu stated that he had zero funding for his campaign, and dozens of surveys conducted before the elections missed his rise. Most surveys placed prime minister and Social Democrat (PSD) leader Marcel Ciolacu, who ended up in third, in first place.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, does not allow political advertising. However, this time that rule was "largely ineffective," said Keith Kiely, coordinator for the Bulgarian Romanian Observatory on Digital Media. The platform had a "significant influence" in the elections, he added.
Many of Georgescu’s voters admit to not knowing too much about him.
"We believed that TikTok was misused and was led to be misused by him and an army of fake accounts that were used for his purpose," said Bogdan Manolea, executive director of the Romanian campaign group, Association for Technology and Internet. According to him, the social media platform should have picked up on that level of sudden activity.
Meanwhile, responding to election interference concerns, PM Marcel Ciolacu said funding for Georgescu's campaign on TikTok needed to be reviewed.
