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.
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