Consiglio supremo di difesa della Romania: TikTok ha favorito Călin Georgescu. Attacchi informatici volti a influenzare l’equità del processo elettorale

The Supreme Council of National Defense announces, after Thursday’s meeting at the Cotroceni Palace, that there were cyber attacks aimed at influencing the fairness of the electoral process. The Council also concluded that a presidential candidate was favored by the TikTok platform. This is Călin Georgescu, who had massive exposure on the social network.

According to the CSAT, documents presented to members show that cyberattacks aimed at influencing the fairness of the electoral process were found. Also, this meeting discussed possible vote manipulation through the TikTok platform.

Reference is made to Călin Georgescu, who had a campaign mainly in the online environment. CSAT considers that TikTok did not comply with the electoral campaign regulations, because this candidate had materials that were not marked as electoral in the campaign. Also, Georgescu’s visibility increased significantly compared to the other candidates who were recognized by the TikTok algorithm, the Presidential Administration’s press release also states. The Supreme Council of National Defense has asked the authorities with responsibilities in the field of national security, those with responsibilities in the smooth conduct of the electoral process, as well as the criminal prosecution bodies to urgently take the necessary steps, according to their competences, following this information published in CSAT.

Basically, the Supreme Council of National Defense has sent all the information it had to the competent bodies and from now on, investigations would be launched by these institutions.

Full press release:

On Thursday, November 28, 2024, the meeting of the Supreme Council for National Defense, chaired by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, took place at the Cotroceni Palace.

The Supreme Council for National Defense does not have powers related to the conduct of the electoral process, however, if there are elements with an impact on national security, these aspects must be analyzed within a meeting of the CSAT.

During the meeting, representatives of the authorities with powers in the field of defense, public order and national security presented assessments regarding possible risks to national security, generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber actors on IT&C infrastructures, supporting the electoral process.

According to the documents presented, the members of the Council found that there were cyber attacks aimed at influencing the fairness of the electoral process.

It was also confirmed that, in the current regional and especially electoral security context, Romania, along with other states on NATO’s Eastern Flank, has become a priority for hostile actions by state and non-state actors, especially the Russian Federation, with a growing interest on its part to influence the public agenda in Romanian society and social cohesion.

The analysis of the documents also revealed that, in violation of electoral legislation, a candidate in the presidential elections benefited from massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate, respectively without requiring him to mark his electoral video materials with the unique identification code assigned by the Permanent Electoral Authority upon the appointment of the coordinating financial representative, an obligation imposed by electoral legislation.

Thus, the visibility of the candidate in question increased significantly compared to the other candidates who were recognized by TikTok algorithms as candidates for the presidential elections, and the content promoted by them was massively filtered, exponentially decreasing their visibility among the platform’s users.

This preferential treatment was enhanced by TikTok’s failure to comply with the Decision of the Central Electoral Bureau, which found that, in fact, the Chinese company, contrary to what was officially communicated to the Romanian authorities, did not implement the provisions of the BEC Decision in any aspect.

From this perspective, the CSAT took note of the fact that, certainly, the social network TikTok, by not implementing the BEC Decision, did not comply with the legal norms regulating the conduct of the electoral process, with an impact on its final result. In this regard, the members of the Council asked the authorities with responsibilities in the field of national security, those with responsibilities in the smooth conduct of the electoral process, as well as the criminal investigation bodies to urgently take the necessary steps, according to their legal competences, to clarify the issues presented in the CSAT meeting.