He has been called a NATO critic, Russia friend and Tiktok messiah. But few could have predicted his success in the Romanian presidential election.
– He is probably the only candidate I can think of in Europe who has reached this far by only campaigning online in social media, says SVT’s European correspondent Christoffer Wendick.
Suspicions of illegal electoral influence
However, his success has raised questions at the Romanian Post and Telecommunications Board, which has begun investigating whether Calin Georgescu may have benefited unduly from Tiktok’s algorithms, reports Antena 3 CNN.
The vice president of the authority, Pavel Popescu, is now demanding that Tiktok be temporarily shut down from Thursday until the investigation is complete.
The authority and the National Broadcasting Council (CNA) in the country have also asked the European Commission to investigate what role Tiktok has played in the election.
Tiktok on the allegations: “False”
Tiktok denies the allegations.
“These statements about the elections in Romania are incorrect and misleading, as most of the candidates established a presence on Tiktok and the winners also campaigned on other digital platforms in addition to ours,” they said, according to Antena 3 CNN.
The President of Romania calls a meeting
Romanian President Klaus Johannis has also summoned the country’s security council to a meeting on Thursday to discuss possible Russian interference in the election, writes Antena 3 CNN.
According to the news site the Constitutional Court will also convene on Thursday to decide on two received requests to annul the first round of elections due to unauthorized election influence. Both requests must have been made by two of the presidential candidates in the election, according to the news site’s information.
Hear more about who Calin Georgescus is and his achievements in the video above.