Romania’s top defense body on Thursday said that cyber attacks undermined the fairness of recent presidential elections along with social media platform, TikTok.
The Supreme Council for State Security (CSAT) said one candidate (Ed’s note: Calin Georgescu who came first) benefited from ‘massive exposure’ on the platform.
The council which met Thursday afternoonin Bucharest said that TikTok did not respect the legal norms regarding the electoral process, which impacted the outcome.
Hard-right pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu came first in the November 24 first round, confounding the political establishment and even his own supporters. He scored almost 23% way above Elena Lasconi, a centrist mayor who came second on 19.17%.
The council also confirmed that Romania, along with other states on NATO’s Eastern Flank, had become a priority for the hostile actions of state and non-state actors, especially Russia.
It said hostile actors had “a growing interest….to influence the public agenda in Romanian society and social cohesion”, the council said.
Members called on prosecutors “to urgently take the necessary legal steps to clarify the aspects presented in the CSAT meeting.”
Members of the council found there were cyber attacks designed to undermine the fairness of the electoral process.
Romania’s president, prime minister, interior, foreign and justice ministers are on the council along with the Army Chief of Staff and the directors of Romania’s domestic (SRI) and foreign intelligence (SIE) agencies.
“A candidate for the presidential elections benefited from massive exposure against the background of the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate,”CSAT said in a statement.
The council “took note of the fact that, for sure , the social network TikTok, by not implementing the BEC (Central Election Office) Decision, did not comply with the legal norms governing the conduct of the electoral process, with an impact on its final result.”
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