The European Commission has launched a new investigation into whether TikTok contravened the Digital Services Act (DSA) by allowing foreign actors to interfere in recent Romanian elections.
A second round of voting in the presidential election was cancelled by the courts earlier this month after unknown independent and Putin-admirer Calin Georgescu surged into an unexpected lead.
Tens of thousands of accounts were activated suddenly just weeks before first round voting began, according to declassified intelligence reports that the commission is now acting on.
“We must protect our democracies from any kind of foreign interference. Whenever we suspect such interference, especially during elections, we have to act swiftly and firmly,” said European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen.
“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. It should be crystal clear that in the EU, all online platforms, including TikTok, must be held accountable.”
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Specifically, the investigation will probe TikTok’s policies on political ads and paid-for political content, as well as the risk of coordinated unauthentic manipulation of the firm’s recommender systems.
Investigators will want to know whether the Chinese-owned platform did enough to mitigate the risk of individuals attempting to influence public opinion before an election.
A certain amount of TikTok content promoting Georgescu was apparently not marked as election content, contravening local laws.
If TikTok is found to have breached the DSA’s Articles 34(1), 34(2) and 35(1), there could be a big fine in store. The law gives regulators the power to fine erring companies up to 6% of global annual turnover.
The firm has already been fined tens of millions of dollars for various infringements in the US and UK. Last year, it was required by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) to pay €345m ($368m) for GDPR infringements regarding its processing of child users’ information.
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