Romania’s top court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, which was won by a populist, Calin Georgescu, who campaigned largely on TikTok.
The Constitutional Court’s decision, on Friday, was made days after the current president, Klaus Iohannis, declassified intelligence reports from the Romanian security service that suggest Russia was behind a coordinated online campaign to promote Georgescu, who has criticized the European Union and NATO.
The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision will mean the first round of the election will have to be re-run.
The State Department had also voiced concerns about potential foreign interference in the election, which was held on Nov. 24.
Georgescu, 62, was due to face Elena Lasconi, a pro-European candidate from the Save Romania Union party, in a run-off on Sunday.
Georgescu is a self-styled outsider who has said he would end Romanian aid to Ukraine and has described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a true leader and patriot.
He has also described Ion Antonescu, who allied Romania with Nazi Germany during World War II, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of the anti-Semitic Iron Guard in the 1940s, as national heroes.
On Thursday, the European Union ordered TikTok to freeze all data linked to the Romanian presidential elections.
EU officials issued a “retention order” under the Digital Services Act—which was brought in last year in a bid to check the power of big tech companies—after declassified documents showed Georgescu had been promoted on TikTok through a series of coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms, and paid promotion.
The declassified files allege that one TikTok user paid 362,000 euros ($381,000) to other users to promote Georgescu’s content.
The Romanian secret service said it had obtained information revealing an aggressive campaign to accelerate Georgescu’s popularity.
Having previously polled in single digits, Georgescu surged to victory in the first round after campaigning largely on TikTok.
He topped the poll in the first round and Marcel Ciolacu, the current prime minister from the ruling Social Democrat Party, came in third and was knocked out.
In a statement on Dec. 4, the State Department said it was concerned about reports of Russian influence in the Romanian electoral process.
‘Foreign Actors’ Warning
“Romania’s hard-earned progress anchoring itself in the transatlantic community cannot be turned back by foreign actors seeking to shift Romania’s foreign policy away from its Western alliances,” it stated. “Any such change would have serious negative impacts on U.S. security cooperation with Romania, while a decision to restrict foreign investment would discourage U.S. companies from continuing to invest in Romania.”
The Social Democrats emerged as the largest party in parliamentary elections on Dec. 1, and are expected to cobble together a coalition government.
Earlier this week, TikTok executives told a European parliament committee that they had uncovered several election influence networks but defended the platform’s election integrity practices.
Caroline Greer, the company’s top lobbyist in the EU, said TikTok had applied its “global playbook” for the Romanian election.
Greer said TikTok deployed 95 Romanian language content moderators, worked with a fact-checking group, and met with political parties and a number of different authorities including the country’s electoral authority.
But Dirk Gotink, a Dutch MEP, said: “The feeling here is that we are losing patience … and that we need more specific answers.
“They come, they let the fire rage online for weeks, months, during an election. And then they send very nice people here into this committee to answer questions in a very polite way.
“But it is simply not convincing and it also doesn’t reflect what is happening online.”
On Thursday, a Tiktok spokesperson said: “We have already been cooperating with the [European] commission and will continue to do so. We look forward to establishing the facts in light of some of the speculation and inaccurate reports we have seen.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times