The European Union’s executive arm has launched an investigation into TikTok over alleged breaches of its digital rules during Romania’s recent presidential election. The probe follows declassified documents alleging that Moscow organized a social media campaign to promote a long-shot candidate, Calin Georgescu.
Romania’s top court canceled the results of the first round of voting after authorities discovered evidence of a sprawling social media campaign on TikTok, which led to an unknown far-right candidate becoming the front-runner. The European Commission has escalated its scrutiny of the popular video-sharing platform over concerns that it failed to tackle risks associated with election-related misinformation.
The commission is examining TikTok’s content recommendation systems and policies on political advertisements to determine if the platform complied with EU regulations. TikTok has stated that it has protected integrity in over 150 elections globally and will continue to address industry-wide challenges.
If found guilty, TikTok could face fines worth up to 6% of its total global revenue or be forced to make changes to its policies to address any issues identified during the investigation.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-romania-european-union-election-0638e90cb3898fc61619e8aed4731a53