{"id":414813,"date":"2024-12-17T14:56:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/12\/17\/elezioni-romania-tiktok-procedimento-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:14:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T15:14:12","slug":"tiktokgate-act-three-on-romanian-elections-commission-opens-formal-proceedings-under-dsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/12\/17\/tiktokgate-act-three-on-romanian-elections-commission-opens-formal-proceedings-under-dsa\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTokgate Act three on Romanian elections. Commission opens formal proceedings under dsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Three’s a charm:\u00a0The European Commission has decided to investigate\u00a0the ‘TikTok gate’<\/strong> in Romania, opening<\/strong> a (third)\u00a0formal proceeding<\/a> against the social media platform <\/strong>for a suspected breach of the Digital Services Act<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0regarding TikTok’s obligation to assess systemic risks related to election integrity.<\/p>\n

The context is\u00a0the\u00a0(annulled<\/a>) presidential elections in Romania<\/strong> on Nov. 24, in which the ultranationalist and pro-Russian C\u0103lin Georgescu<\/strong> candidate surprisingly\u00a0won<\/strong>. The key to the unexpected\u00a0result is precisely\u00a0the candidate’s massive use of the social platform<\/strong>, which proved\u00a0perfectly functional in its mechanisms to relaunch similar content.<\/p>\n

\"romania<\/a>
Independent candidate Calin Georgescu (photo: Octav Ganea\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elections must start over (but TikTok denies any favoritism)<\/h4>\n

The Constitutional Court <\/strong>in Bucharest declared the election result void<\/strong> two days before the runoff, assessing the presence of foreign interference. <\/strong>However, the EU executive’s problem is understanding whether TikTok is allowing\u00a0behavior that breaches\u00a0its rules.<\/p>\n

The European probes<\/strong> will focus on risk management<\/strong> and civic discourse<\/strong>. The two main areas of focus concern TikTok’s content recommendation systems<\/strong>, which might be unable to prevent manipulation, and the platform’s policies<\/strong> on political advertising and paid political content<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

TikTok stipulates in its election <\/strong>guidelines that no paid promotions,<\/strong> political advertising, or fundraising by members of political parties may take place to avoid\u00a0<\/strong>“interference with voters<\/strong>” and content may “hinder a voter’s ability to make an informed decision<\/strong>.” It is a\u00a0clear rule, but apparently, it did not prevent\u00a0Georgescu from indirectly using\u00a0influencers to promote his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It is worth noting\u00a0that\u00a0the Commission already in October<\/a> had requested clarifications<\/strong> on TikTok’s actions regarding information\u00a0manipulation in elections, demonstrating sad foresight and anticipating what would later happen in Romania.<\/p>\n

TikTok denies any favoritism: “TikTok has nothing to do with Georgescu<\/strong>,” representatives of the platform said when\u00a0invited shortly after the European Parliament elections for a roundtable discussion<\/a>. For the European Commission, it will also be necessary to analyze the system of local moderators<\/strong>, which the platform reiterated that it has. Their task is\u00a0to check content and fact-checking<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What if Georgescu were a\u00a0Russian proxy<\/em>?<\/h4>\n

The EU is afraid of\u00a0potential interference from third countries (Russia)<\/strong>. “As the European Union, we have a responsibility to safeguard our democratic processes<\/strong> from potential manipulation and interference,” said Henna Virkkunen, Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy<\/strong>. It is why\u00a0the EU executive will\u00a0use declassified intelligence documents and information from third parties.<\/p>\n

“Following serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential elections by using TikTok, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok has violated the Digital Services Act by failing to tackle such risks,” said president\u00a0von der Leyen<\/strong>. “It should be crystal clear that in the EU, all online platforms, including TikTok, must be held accountable,” she concluded.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
European Commission President von der Leyen – Photo: Frederick Florin \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The goal of the investigation is to strengthen European infrastructure, particularly in response to suspected hybrid attacks from Russia,<\/strong> rather than focusing solely on condemning the individual platform. It is not a question of the single process or the individual platform but about building the capacity to manage the risks of digitization in electoral processes. Regarding veiled accusations of ‘activism’ just because the EU does not like who won the first round of elections, Commission experts make it clear that there is no intention to restrict freedom of speech or expression in any way, nor that this decision stems from the fact that Georgescu turned out to be elected.<\/p>\n

The proceedings are ongoing, with no clear timeline<\/strong>, as there is no legal deadline in the Digital Services Act to end the investigation.\u00a0According to a Commission spokesperson, TikTok is cooperating closely with the EU executive and cybersecurity experts<\/strong> by providing data and information, as it is under a retention order issued by the Commission for\u00a0data on actual or foreseeable systemic risks\u00a0its service could pose on electoral processes and civic discourse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The retention order covers national elections in the EU between November 24, 2024, and March 31, 2025, which includes elections\u00a0in Croatia in late December and Germany in late February.\u00a0The relationship between the EU and TikTok<\/strong> is proving to be challenging, with TikTok already facing three formal proceedings following two investigations (one underway<\/a>\u00a0since February 2024, and the other closed with commitments<\/a> in August 2024), both concerning child protection. It would be equally challenging\u00a0to ignore European obligations, for which steep fines are provided under the DSA<\/strong> (and the potential risks to democracy posed by any unverified video content passing through TikTok).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The platform’s reassurances to the Commission are futile, as it investigates violations of the Digital Services Act. Moreover, concerns of Russian interference in the electoral process keep the EU on high alert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7877,"featured_media":409541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[25871,30034,26087,30033,29908,26941],"class_list":["post-414813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-service-digital-en","tag-dsa-en","tag-procedura-formale-en","tag-investigations-en","tag-tiktok-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414813"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414839,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414813\/revisions\/414839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}