Pavel Popescu, vice president of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM), said Wednesday he would launch the “official process” to block TikTok in Romania.
“I request, starting … 28.11.2024, the suspension of the TikTok platform on the territory of Romania, until the completion of the investigation by the state institutions regarding the manipulation of the electoral process,” Pavel Popescu wrote on Facebook, a remark widely reported by local media. Popescu’s Facebook account was deactivated later on Wednesday.
The country’s President Klaus Iohannis is holding a meeting Thursday with top national security officials to discuss possible risks “generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber actors.” Iohannis did not mention TikTok by name.
In a letter seen by POLITICO on Thursday morning, TikTok — owned by Chinese technology giant ByteDance — refuted allegations it had been used to influence the Romanian election.
“To date, we have found no evidence of a Covert Influence Operation on our platform within the last several weeks for the ongoing presidential election in Romania, nor evidence of foreign influence,” the platform said in the letter addressed to Romanian authorities. It added it had “removed over 150 impersonation accounts linked to” Georgescu and more than 650 accounts linked to other candidates.
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier confirmed this week the EU executive had received a request to open “a formal investigation into TikTok’s role in the Romanian elections” under its flagship social media law, the Digital Services Act.
