In a press release published on Tuesday 26 November, the Romanian Communications Administration and Regulation Authority (ANCOM) stated that it had contacted the European Commission about TikTok’s interference in the smooth running of its national elections, which were held last Sunday.
ANCOM claims that TikTok had “not responded promptly” to its requests: “The AEP (the authority responsible for the proper conduct of the elections) sent notifications to the TikTok platform, pointing out various irregularities linked to the illegal content being disseminated and asking it to take the necessary measures to ensure that the election campaign in Romania takes place under legal conditions, but TikTok did not act promptly at the request of the Romanian authority”, the statement reads.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Régnier confirmed to Agence Europe that the Commission had indeed received a request to open a “formal investigation into TikTok’s role in the Romanian elections” under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
“If the Commission suspects an infringement on the basis of the evidence in its possession, it may initiate proceedings (...). We are closely monitoring the situation”, he declared, without giving any further details on the information provided by the Romanian authorities.
In October, TikTok was ordered by the EU to “provide more information on the measures adopted to prevent manipulation of the service by malicious actors and to mitigate risks related to elections, media pluralism and civic discourse” (see EUROPE 13495/10). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)