Lawmakers keep TikTok on watch after clashes over Romanian election

TikTok left questions on what it did to take down illegal content during the Romanian elections unanswered, and the European Parliament is continuing to review the situation, MEPs claimed after clashes with representatives of the social media in the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee on Tuesday. 

The video sharing platform was invited to discuss the role it played in the presidential elections after Calin Georgescu, a right-wing candidate who ran independently, emerged as the winner with some 22.95% of the votes after the first round, mainly because of his strong performance on TikTok. 

TikTok claimed it was in touch with the country’s authorities, including the electoral one, ahead of the vote, according to Caroline Greer, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations.

In addition, she said that the Big Tech company has some 95 Romanian-language content moderators, the largest number compared with other online the platforms, who also scan for political advertising, which is banned on the platform. 

Last week, the European Commission asked additional questions to the platform under the Digital Services Act (DSA) following a request by Romania’s National Audiovisual Council to do so.

TikTok – which has until December 13 to reply to the questions – said earlier in a letter to the Romanian authorities that “no evidence [was found] of a Covert Influence Operation on our platform within the last several weeks for the ongoing presidential election in Romania, nor evidence of foreign influence.”

Hearing

Lawmakers today asked whether the platform would make its electoral rulebook available, as well as give them insight into the company’s algorithms. 

German MEP Alexandra Geese (Greens/EFA) said: “We ask for clear transparency, how do you reinforce the internal system before an election, and how many staff understands the situation in Romania?” Katherina Barley (Germany/S&D) asked the platform if it believed it needed to be regulated, and how it identified bots. 

Laura Ballarin (Spain, S&D), told Euronews TikTok did “zero self-criticism nor have they responded to the request to publish the manuals they have for moderators in order to face the accusations that the European Union is making against them.”

The chair of the IMCO committee said they will decide how to follow up and whether to send written questions for further clarification. 

Valérie Hayer (France/Renew) called for a hearing with the CEO of TikTok in front of the Parliament. “I made an official request to President Metsola. Algorithms must never bias our electoral campaigns. There is no democracy without fairness,” she wrote on X. 

On behalf of the Commission, Rita Weezenbeek, director of platforms policy and enforcement, concluded the discussion by saying that the investigation into the situation is ongoing. “We will have to assess the outcome before we can come to a position.”

The second round of the presidential election will be on 8 December, where Georgescu will face reformist Elena Lasconi from the centre-right Save Romania Union (USR).