TikTok defends handling of Romania election content in grilling by EU lawmakers

abcnews.go.com:

TikTok took down several networks allegedly trying to meddle in Romania’s elections, executives said Tuesday as they defended the company’s election integrity measures to European Union lawmakers

BUCHAREST, Romania — TikTok took down several networks that tried to meddle in Romania's elections, executives said Tuesday as they defended the company's election integrity measures to European Union lawmakers.

The video-sharing platform is a focus of controversy in the Eastern European country after far-right outsider Calin Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner in the vote, plunging the country into turmoil amid allegations of electoral violations and Russian meddling.

Among the networks that TikTok uncovered were two small groups that it disrupted on Friday, days after the first round of voting, Brie Pegum, the platform’s global head of product, authenticity and transparency, told a committee.

Both networks targeted Romanian users. One had only 1,781 followers and supported Georgescu, who was a little-known independent candidate until he set off shockwaves by convincingly winning the first round of voting, beating out the incumbent prime minister. The other networks supported different candidates, Pegum said.

Many observers chalked up Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 5.8 million likes and 527,000 followers.

He gained huge traction and popularity in the weeks leading up to the first vote. But experts suspect Georgescu’s online following was artificially inflated while officials hinted that he was given preferential treatment by TikTok.

The controversy highlights how TikTok has become a key election tool in Romania, an EU and NATO member state that shares a long border with war-torn Ukraine.

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