Lottie Cronestrand on the interrupted elections in Romania • “Political campaigning on social media in flash lighting”
Election laws are flouted, campaign contributions are obscured, and fake contributions are spread at lightning speed, to unsuspecting voters. The presidential election in Romania has put political campaigning on social media in the spotlight. The country’s constitutional court canceled the election on the grounds that foreign actors tried to influence the election results. One problem, however, is that large parts of the country’s population will not believe it to be true, no matter what evidence is presented.
2.1 million Romanians chose to cast their vote for the ultra-nationalist Călin Georgescu in the first round of elections, despite the fact that he only campaigned on social media, did not give interviews, participate in debates or meet voters in any other way. He had operated in the dark and built up a large following – mainly on TikTok.
That he, as a relatively unknown candidate, could sail almost completely under the radar and then win is unprecedented internationally.
Romania is a young democracy and despite the fact that 35 years have passed, the country is still struggling with the legacy of communism. Trust in politicians and authorities is low. Several analysts I spoke to in Bucharest see the election as a protest, not only against corruption and nepotism, but also against everyday hardships, such as increased fuel and food prices and the divisions in society.
In bombastic videos on various social media, Călin Georgescu had promised solutions to all these problems.
Dormant accounts were activated
Already a few days after the election, both Romanian authorities and journalists began to report on suspected irregularities. Among other things, that 25,000 dormant TikTok accounts had been activated in the weeks before the election, to spread Georgescu’s message. In the days before the second round of elections, the country’s current president Klaus Iohannis chose, in a very unusual move, to publish reports from the intelligence service that showed that both the state and other actors paid millions to achieve the spread. The president and prime minister declared that Russia was involved, information that was confirmed by the United States. The Constitutional Court then made the very drastic decision that the election should be redone.
Asked the EU for help
The EU two years ago tightened requirements on social media giants to tackle manipulation, but NATO’s Center of Expertise for Strategic Communications warned this week that the laws are not being followed satisfactorily, and that it is still easy and cheap to buy fake content, to influence public opinion or election results.
Romanian authorities have asked the European Commission for help to investigate improper election influence. Inquiries with TikTok have already been held and the EU this week ordered the company to save all data from the first round of elections, to determine whether the influence campaigns violated Union laws.
In Romania, many hope that what happened in Romania will be a wake-up call for the democratic world.
When we meet one of the country’s leading political analysts, Radu Magdin, he calls for increased control of the platforms, including through AI-generated surveillance.
According to Ingrid Bicu, an expert on digital technologies and democratic processes, the preventive work is absolutely crucial, because the reactive risks backfiring. She believes that it is now important to carefully analyze what happened and which vulnerabilities must be addressed, while politicians and researchers humbly try to understand why such large parts of the population could be swept up in the rhetoric.
Sees him as the Messiah
Georgescu himself claims that he did not pay a penny for his election campaign on TikTok and Instagram and denies all accusations. And his followers believe him. In one of the ultra-nationalist’s strongest strongholds in the Bucharest area, the suburb of Buftea, we met supporters who described him almost as a messiah figure. The data on Russian election influence they dismiss as a way for the current politicians to get rid of a challenger, and retain power.
The election in Romania therefore raises an important question for all democrats – how to stop Russian election influence if the people distrust the messenger?