The EU is investigating TikTok over Russian interference in the voting process in Romania

EU regulators will assess whether TikTok’s advertising policies and the systems it uses to recommend content to users violate the Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to prevent the spread of misinformation and stop illegal activities online.

“When such interventions are suspected, especially during elections we must act quickly and decisively,” von der Leyen said in a statement, external.

“It must be clear that all online platforms in the EU, including TikTok, must be held accountable.”

Georgescu’s election campaign focused primarily on TikTok, and while Moscow has denied interference, Romanian intelligence has said Russia has identified the NATO member state as an enemy state and a priority target.

TikToks promoting a candidate are not listed as election content, which is illegal in Romania.

One account paid $381,000 (£300,000) in posts for Georgescu, who himself denies spending any money on the platform.

TikTok vehemently denied the claims, insisting that “it is absolutely false to claim that (Georgescu’s) account was treated differently than any other candidate.”

While the platform allows organic posting and sharing of election content, paid political advertising is prohibited.

After the second round of voting was canceled, TikTok said that “when the Romanian authorities contacted us to flag a number of videos without identifiers… we took action on those videos within 24 hours.”