All these campaigns were disrupted on Friday Nov. 29, it said — in between the presidential election’s first round and the parliamentary vote on Sunday Dec. 1.
Two attempts were launched out of Romania itself, TikTok said. One network of 78 accounts with 1,781 followers tried to promote ultranationalist and far-right Călin Georgescu, and another of 12 accounts attempted to boost independent candidate Mircea Geoană.
The networks were “very, very small networks” launched out of Romania, targeting a Romanian audience, said Brie Pegum, TikTok’s global head of product for authenticity and transparency.
The Sputnik campaign included 11 accounts with close to 140,000 followers. TikTok said the takedown was part of a regular sweep and not necessarily linked to Romania. Sputnik was banned on the platform because of interference attempts, but new accounts are set up regularly.
In September, TikTok already disrupted a network of 22 accounts that sought to target Romanian audiences with misinformation and “promote narratives critical of the current Romanian government,” the company said at the time.
TikTok is being scrutinized for its handling of the first round of the Romanian presidential election, which propelled ultranationalist and far-right Călin Georgescu to victory, partly thanks to a late, explosive surge in view counts of his TikTok content.
