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Brussels has opened a formal probe into TikTok for breaching the EU’s digital rules when it failed to “properly assess and mitigate systemic risks” over the way “foreign actors” allegedly used the social media platform to interfere in Romania’s recent elections.
The investigation was triggered by a complaint from Romania’s national media watchdog after Călin Georgescu, a pro-Vladimir Putin candidate, went viral on the Chinese platform and unexpectedly topped the first round of the presidential vote last month.
Romanian authorities said Moscow had sought to undermine the polls and a court cancelled the second round of the election.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday: “Following serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential elections by using TikTok, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok has violated the Digital Services Act by failing to tackle such risks. It should be crystal clear that in the EU, all online platforms, including TikTok, must be held accountable.”
The commission said its investigation would focus on how TikTok managed risks related to its systems for recommending posts to users, in particular risks of “co-ordinated inauthentic manipulation or automated exploitation of the service” as well as its policies on curbing political advertisements and paid-for political content.
Investigators in Brussels suspect TikTok failed to “diligently” mitigate “the risks posed by specific regional and linguistic aspects of national elections”, the commission said.
Henna Virkkunen, the bloc’s tech chief said: “I am confident that our investigation into TikTok’s practices will contribute to a safer and more trustworthy online environment for all EU citizens.”
Companies found in breach of the Digital Services Act — legislation aimed at setting the rules on how platforms should police the internet — face penalties of up to 6 per cent of their global annual turnover.
TikTok defended its record of monitoring more than 150 elections globally and said it continued to “proactively” address industry-wide challenges when it came to curbing disinformation online.
It added: “TikTok has 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.”
Romanian authorities alleged TikTok’s algorithms “amplified” Georgescu’s content at the expense of other rivals, according to the regulator’s vice-president Valentin-Alexandru Jucan.
The country’s top court cancelled the presidential election over concerns that Russian agents used TikTok to promote Georgescu. “We are very concerned about the events in Romania,” said a senior EU official with direct knowledge of the TikTok investigation.