BREAKING NEWS
CSAT found that TikTok influenced the presidential elections in Romania: A candidate benefited from massive exposure
“A candidate in the presidential elections benefited from massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform gave him by not marking him as a political candidate,” CSAT says.
Photo source: Presidential Administration
The Supreme Council of National Defense has no powers related to the conduct of the electoral process, however, if there are elements with an impact on national security, it is necessary to analyze these aspects during a meeting of the CSAT.
At Thursday’s meeting, the representatives of the authorities with powers in the field of defense, public order and national security presented assessments regarding possible risks to national security, generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber actors on some IT&C infrastructures, support for the electoral process.
According to the documents presented, the members of the Council found that there were cyber attacks with the aim of influencing the correctness of the electoral process.
It was also confirmed that, in the current regional and especially electoral security context, Romania, along with other states on NATO’s Eastern Flank, has become a priority for the hostile actions of some state and non-state actors, in especially Russia, there is a growing interest on its part to influence the public agenda in Romanian society and social cohesion.
“From the analysis of the documents it also emerged that, by violating the electoral legislation, a candidate for the presidential elections benefited from a massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate, respectively without you would require the obligation to mark the electoral materials of the video type with the unique identification code assigned by the Permanent Electoral Authority when appointing the coordinating financial representative, an obligation imposed by the electoral legislation.
Thus, the visibility of the respective candidate increased significantly in relation to the other candidates who were recognized by the TikTok algorithms as candidates for the presidential elections, and the content promoted by them was massively filtered, exponentially reducing their visibility among platform users.
This preferential treatment was enhanced by TikTok’s non-compliance with the Decision of the Central Electoral Bureau, which found that, in fact, the Chinese company, contrary to what was officially communicated to the Romanian authorities, did not implement the provisions of the BEC Decision in any aspect”, reports CSAT .
From this perspective, CSAT took note of the fact that, definitely, the TikTok social network, by not implementing the BEC Decision, did not respect the legal rules that regulate the conduct of the electoral process, with an impact on its final result.
In this sense, the members of the Council asked the authorities with attributions in the field of national security, those with attributions in the smooth running of the electoral process, as well as the criminal prosecution bodies to urgently take the necessary steps, according to the legal powers, to clarify the issues presented in the CSAT meeting .
Source: www.mediafax.ro
