'European Commission opens probe against TikTok over Romanian election' 17/12/2024

The European Commission has launched formal proceedings against TikTok over potential breaches of the Digital Services Act, following evidence of Russian interference in Romania's election. The EC is gathering data to determine if TikTok violated EU law.

The European Commission announced today the opening of formal proceedings against TikTok, suspected of breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA) by not adequately mitigating risks linked to the integrity of Romania's election.

The Romanian presidential election on 24 November saw the unexpected victory in the first round of Georgescu, an independent nationalist and Eurosceptic candidate who was previously little known to the public. The election was annulled after the Constitutional Court received evidence of Russian interference in the voting process, particularly on TikTok, as provided by the country’s intelligence services.

The Commission's concerns relate to how the social media's recommendation algorithm works and the system of political advertisements, which require clear labelling.

This is only the first step in determining whether TikTok has breached the DSA. Now that formal proceedings have begun, the Commission will gather further information. If found non-compliant with EU law, TikTok could face a fine of up to 6% of its global revenue. The European Commission has not provided a timeline for when it expects to reach a conclusion.

"We've protected the integrity of our platform through over 150 elections around the world and continue proactively addressing these industry-wide challenges," a TikTok spokesperson told Euronews, adding that the company had provided the European Commission "with extensive information regarding these efforts, and we have transparently and publicly detailed our robust actions."

"We do not accept paid political advertisements, we proactively remove content for violating our policies on misinformation, harassment and hate speech, and continue to work with the European Commission as well as regional and national authorities to address requests and discuss concerns," the TikTok spokesperson said.