Romania’s National Audiovisual Council (CNA) on November 26 asked the European Commission to open an official investigation into the Chinese social network TikTok, announced Valentin Jucan, vice president of the CNA.

The call came after far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu took an unexpected lead in the first round of the election, helped by a large-scale campaign carried out on social media networks, primarily TikTok.

The Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) claims that it sent notices to TikTok reporting various irregularities related to illegally distributed content and asked it to take the necessary measures to ensure the electoral campaign in Romania was carried out in line with the law. However, representatives of the platform did not act quickly, according to the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM).

ANCOM representatives explained that, based on a Digital Services Act (DSA) regulation, this is comes under the competence of the European Commission in the case of very large online platforms (VLOP), such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and of very large search engines (VLOSE) such as Google or Bing,.

Valérie Hayer, head of the liberal group Renew Europe, has already demanded that TikTok's chief executive appear before the European Parliament to answer questions about the platform's role in the presidential election in Romania, particularly allegations of the secret activity of thousands of fake accounts ahead of the vote .