Executive summary
Romania experienced an exceptionally intense electoral year in 2024, with local, European Parliament (EP), general, and presidential elections all scheduled. Although the local and EP elections in June were marked by some controversy, they paled in comparison to the unprecedented events surrounding the presidential elections. The first-round votes were recounted, and subsequently, the elections were annulled due to allegations of foreign interference. The situation remains fluid, with some individuals feeling that democracy was saved at the last moment, while others believe it died with the annulment. Recently, social media has seen a surge in calls for action and protest, accompanied by an increase in false narratives.
The unprecedented annulment of Romania’s 2024 presidential election first round marks a critical moment in European democracy, revealing how social media platforms can be weaponized to undermine electoral processes. At the center of this crisis stands TikTok, whose platform became the primary vector for allegations that a sophisticated, state-backed disinformation campaign has ultimately affected Romania’s democratic integrity and leading to the European Commission formally opening formal proceedings against TikTok on election risks under the Digital Services Act.
The campaign propelled Călin Georgescu, a previously marginal figure known for anti-Western views, to an unexpected first-round victory through what seemed like a carefully orchestrated social media operation. Intelligence services formally accused the existence of a €1 million campaign involving 25,000 coordinated TikTok accounts, none of which was declared in official campaign finance reports. According to disclosed documents, the operation displayed clear state-actor characteristics, with Russian-linked technical infrastructure supporting content distribution across 19 countries.
Most concerning according to officially declassified documents was TikTok’s apparent inability – or unwillingness – to detect and counter this threat. The platform’s algorithm seemed to have been systematically exploited to amplify anti-democratic messaging, while paid political content flowed through influencer networks without proper disclosure. In just two months, Georgescu’s content garnered over 100 million views, with hashtags promoting his candidacy dominating the platform’s Romanian political discourse. The Constitutional Court’s decision to annul the election came after revelations from Romania’s intelligence services exposed the scale of foreign interference. This crisis serves as a stark warning: without substantial reform in platform governance and oversight, social media platforms risk becoming powerful tools for undermining democratic processes. The Romanian case demonstrates that current platform safeguards are inadequate to protect elections. This time TikTok was the most prominent stage for such vulnerabilities for the electoral integrity to manifest. But it is not only TikTok. We expect that, as the legitimate anger and frustration of citizens will continue to be unmet by the political establishment, more and more malign influences to be put to work and for state and non-state actors to exploit the distrust in the electoral process and ultimately undermine the very foundation of our liberal democracies.
