Romanian Intelligence Reveals Massive TikTok-Based Election Interference Campaign

On 4 Decem­ber 2024, BBC report­ed that Roman­ian author­i­ties uncov­ered a sophis­ti­cat­ed for­eign influ­ence oper­a­tion that helped pro­pel a pre­vi­ous­ly unknown far-right can­di­date to first place in pres­i­den­tial elec­tions, along­side coor­di­nat­ed Russ­ian cyber attacks. The arti­cle begins:

Author­i­ties in Roma­nia have revealed details of what appears to be a major attempt to inter­fere in the coun­try’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tions using the social media plat­form Tik­Tok, and with a series of cyber-attacks. Roma­ni­a’s domes­tic intel­li­gence ser­vice says there are signs the effort was “co-ordi­nat­ed by a state-spon­sored actor”. Calin Georges­cu, a far-right Nato-scep­tic who has pre­vi­ous­ly praised Vladimir Putin, was almost unknown in Roma­nia until he won the first round of vot­ing in the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions two weeks ago…

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Key Points:

1. Intel­li­gence doc­u­ments revealed $381,000 in undis­closed Tik­Tok pay­ments pro­mot­ing pro-Putin can­di­date Georges­cu, vio­lat­ing elec­toral laws and plat­form rules.
2. Roman­ian secu­ri­ty ser­vices detect­ed 85,000 attempt­ed hacks tar­get­ing elec­toral data, using meth­ods “typ­i­cal of state-spon­sored actors.”
3. Prime Min­is­ter Cio­lacu, who placed third, has endorsed reformist Ele­na Las­coni for the runoff while author­i­ties inves­ti­gate elec­tion interference.
4. Georges­cu warned against planned pro-EU protests, com­par­ing poten­tial unrest to Ukraine’s 2014 Maid­an rev­o­lu­tion that oust­ed a pro-Russ­ian president.