Romania’s top security council on Wednesday declassified documents describing Russia’s alleged involvement in the first round of its presidential elections.
One of the documents details how Calin Georgescu, the leading far-right outsider candidate, was massively promoted on social media platform TikTok through coordinated accounts and paid promotion.
The involvement is similar to the Russian attack on Ukraine prior to the February 2022 invasion. Millions of euros was paid to TikTok influencers “to manipulate and divide Romanians.”
Romanians will vote in a presidential election runoff on Sunday between the far-right, pro-Russian NATO skeptic Georgescu and pro-European centrist Elena Lasconi, an outcome that might isolate Romania in the West.
Having polled in single digits before the first presidential election round on Nov. 24, Georgescu surged to victory that raised questions about how it had been possible. He wants to end Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
Wednesday’s shock disclosure came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified documents now in the hands of public prosecutors.
In one of the unclassified documents, Romania’s intelligence agency, the SRI, said Georgescu was massively promoted on social media platform TikTok through coordinated accounts which were set up in 2016 and lay dormant until two weeks before the elections, recommended algorithms and paid promotion. Georgescu has declared zero spending for his campaign.
The Romanian Intelligence Agency revealed at a meeting of the country’s Supreme Defense Council members at the November 28 meeting, that data it obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign, carried out by circumventing national legislation in the elections, but also exploiting the algorithms of certain social media platforms to rapidly increase the popularity of Calin Georgescu.”
The activity of the accounts on the TikTok network has been coordinated by a state actor, who used an alternative communication channel to “roll out” messages on the platform, the Romanian Intelligence Service said.
It said Bogdan Peșchir, a programmer from Brasov transferred over one million euros to TikTok accounts in the form of donations.
Russia has denied any interference in Romania’s elections. “The attacks continued intensively including on election day and the night after elections,” SRI said in a declassified document.
“The operating mode and the amplitude of the campaign leads us to conclude the attacker has considerable resources specific to an attacking state.”
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