by LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators said Tuesday they are investigating whether TikTok violated the bloc’s digital rulebook by failing to consider the risks to Romania’s presidential election, which has been mired in allegations of election violations and Russian interference has become tumultuous.
The European Commission is stepping up its scrutiny of the popular video-sharing platform after Romania’s top court annulled the results of the first round of voting, which resulted in an unknown far-right candidate becoming the frontrunner.
The court made its unprecedented decision after authorities in the European Union and a NATO member country declassified documents alleging that Moscow had organized a wide-ranging social media campaign to promote candidate Calin Georgescu.
“Following serious indications that foreign actors used TikTok to intervene in the Romanian presidential elections, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok violated the Digital Services Act by failing to address such risks,” EU Commission President said Ursula von der Leyen in a press release. “It should be abundantly clear that in the EU all online platforms, including TikTok, must be held accountable.”
The European Commission is the executive arm of the 27 EU states and enforces the bloc’s Digital Services Act, a comprehensive set of rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms and protecting users from illegal content. Earlier this month, TikTok was ordered to preserve all information related to the election.
In the primary round on November 24, Georgescu was an underdog among the 13 candidates, but ended up at the top of the polls. He was due to face a pro-EU reformist rival in a runoff before the court annulled the results.
According to the declassified files, there was an “aggressive advertising campaign” 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 over 150 elections around the world and continues to address these “industry-wide challenges.”
“TikTok has provided the European Commission with extensive information on these efforts and we have set out our decisive actions transparently and publicly,” it said in a statement.
The commission said its investigation would focus on TikTok’s content recommendation systems, particularly risks related to “coordinated inauthentic manipulation or automated exploitation.” She also examines TikTok’s policies on political advertising and “paid political content.”
TikTok said it does not accept paid political advertising and will “proactively” remove content for violating misinformation policies.
The investigation could result in TikTok making changes to correct any problems or lead to fines of up to 6% of the company’s total global revenue.
