TikTok defends handling of Romania election content in grilling by EU lawmakers

Calin Georgescu, a far-right independent candidate for president who came in first after the first round of Romania’s presidential election, prepares to vote Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election. TikTok applied its “global playbook” for the Romanian election and took a local approach with staff on the ground, said Caroline Greer, the company’s top lobbyist in the EU. Greer said TikTok deployed 95 Romanian language content moderators, worked with a fact-checking group and met with political parties and a number of different authorities including the country’s electoral authority. “But it is simply not convincing — and it also doesn’t reflect what is happening online.” According to a report by the Bucharest-based Expert Forum think tank, Georgescu’s TikTok account garnered 92.8 million views primarily within the last few months, a figure that grew by 52 million views a week later, just days ahead of the first-round vote. In an emailed statement to the Associated Press on Monday, TikTok said the account was one of “more than 150 accounts impersonating Georgescu” to date that has been removed, but added: “We also removed more than 650 additional impersonation accounts belonging to other candidates.” Georgescu will face reformist Elena Lasconi, of the progressive Save Romania Union party, in a presidential runoff on Sunday.