Komšiluk

A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after declassified intelligence alleged Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The constitutional court’s decision – which is final – came on Friday after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence two days earlier that alleged Russia ran a sprawling campaign comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram.

Despite being a huge outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner on 24 November. He was due to face the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union party, in a runoff on Sunday.

The Romania situation is unorecedented. If *everything* in this report is *entirely true* it still amounts to canceling an election b/c of social media. Not ballot falsification. Not voting irregularities. But a messaging campaign on TikTok whose actual reach is not measured. https://t.co/H3kYLrfCfW

— Julian Waller (@JulianWaller) December 6, 2024

beatakeshi wrote:Popriličan bullshit je to sve zajedno. Neka zabrane i propagandu i internet 6 meseci pre izbora.

Erős Pista wrote: 

Pa i nije bilo bas tako, bar ne u Evropi. Ovo je direktna posledica rata u Ukrajini.

Nektivni Ugnelj wrote:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1947_crises

Good phone call with @KlausIohannis

The Commission will keep working so that platforms respect their obligations under the Digital Services Act regarding elections in Europe.

It’s for the Romanian people to decide what’s best for their country, free from foreign interference.

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 7, 2024

Ustavni sud u Srbiji kada bi radio svoj posao, on bi sve izbore od 2017. poništio, jer su realizovani u atmosferi uskraćnih prava na informisanje i izraženu odmazdu i pririske čime je uskraćeno ustavno pravo da gradjani biraju. https://t.co/LLdZVJnr49

— Odlično je, od Gavrilovića je (@GavrilovicZoran) December 7, 2024

https://www.politico.eu/article/investigation-ties-romanian-liberals-tiktok-campaign-pro-russia-candidate-calin-georgescu/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social


Report ties Romanian liberals to TikTok campaign that fueled pro-Russia candidate

A campaign from a governing center-right party may have been hijacked to benefit far-right candidate Călin Georgescu, snoop.ro report shows.


The center-right Romanian National Liberal Party paid for a campaign on TikTok that ended up favoring far-right independent candidate Călin Georgescu, a new report from investigative outlet snoop.ro indicates.

Georgescu was catapulted from obscurity into the lead in the first round of voting in the Romanian presidential election on Nov. 24. But the country’s top constitutional court ended up cancelling the vote due to a TikTok campaign that heavily promoted the pro-Russia Georgescu, potentially impacting election results, similar to influence operations run by the Kremlin in Ukraine and Moldova.

According to the snoop.ro report, the Romanian tax agency found that the Liberals had paid for a social media campaign on TikTok through influencers and by promoting a hashtag which ended up being hijacked to benefit Georgescu instead. The Liberals are a junior coalition partner in the outgoing government and their candidate, Nicolae Ciuca, placed fifth in the annulled first round.

The National Liberal Party paid an external firm, Kensington Communication, to implement the social media campaign. In a statement, Kensington Communication wrote: “If the campaign has been cloned or hijacked in favor of one candidate or another, we ask the competent bodies to verify and take the necessary legal measures.” The company also said the script they had sent out to influencers for the campaign had been altered.

The cancellation of the first round of the Romanian presidential election has thrown the country into a deep political crisis. The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into how TikTok manages risks of elections meddling in response to the situation in Romania.