EU regulators said Tuesday they are investigating whether TikTok violated the bloc’s digital rulebook by failing to deal with the risks of Romania’s presidential election, which has come amid allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference. Has been in turmoil since.
The European Commission is stepping up scrutiny of the popular video-sharing platform after Romania’s top court annulled the results of the first round of voting, resulting in an unidentified far-right candidate becoming the frontrunner.
The court made its unprecedented decision after officials from an EU and NATO member state made public documents alleging that Moscow had conducted a widespread social media campaign to promote longtime candidate Calin Georgescu.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a press release, “After receiving serious indications that foreign actors may have used TikTok to interfere in the Romanian presidential elections, we are now fully investigating whether TikTok Breached the Digital Services Act by failing to address such risks.” , “It must be absolutely clear that in the EU, all online platforms, including TikTok, must be held accountable.”
The European Commission is the executive branch of the 27-nation EU and enforces the bloc’s Digital Services Act, a comprehensive set of rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms and protecting users from risks such as election-related misinformation. . It had earlier this month ordered TikTok to retain all election-related information.
Georgescu was an outsider among the 13 candidates in the preliminary round of voting on 24 November, but topped the poll. He had to face a pro-EU reformist opponent before a court could annul the results.
The files made public alleged that an “aggressive promotional campaign” was carried out to boost Georgescu’s popularity, including payments totaling $381,000 to TikTok influencers to promote him on the platform.
TikTok said it has “protected the integrity” of its platform in more than 150 polls around the world and continues to address these “industry-wide challenges.”
“TikTok has provided the European Commission with extensive information regarding these efforts, and we have detailed our strengthening actions transparently and publicly,” it said in a statement.
The Commission said its investigation would focus on TikTok’s content recommendation systems, particularly on risks related to “coordinated inauthentic manipulation or automated exploitation”. It is also looking into TikTok’s policies on political ads and “paid-for political content.”
TikTok said it does not accept paid political advertisements and “proactively” removes content if it violates policies on misinformation.
The investigation could result in TikTok being required to make changes to fix the problems or be fined up to 6% of the company’s total global revenue.
