The Supreme National Defense Council (CSAT) met at the request of President Klaus Iohannis.
During the meeting, the representatives of the authorities with duties in the field of defense, public order and national security presented assessments regarding possible risks to national security, generated by the actions of some 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 the Russian Federation, 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, i.e. without having requires the obligation to mark the video electoral materials with the unique identification code assigned by the Permanent Electoral Authority when appointing the coordinating financial trustee, an obligation imposed by the electoral legislation.
Thus, the visibility of that 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 decreasing their visibility among platform users.
This preferential treatment was enhanced by TikTok’s non-compliance with the Central Electoral Bureau Decision, 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.
CSAT took note of the fact that, certainly, the TikTok social network, by not implementing the BEC Decision, did not comply with 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 powers in the field of national security, those with powers in the smooth running of the electoral process, as well as the criminal investigation bodies to urgently undertake the necessary steps, according to the legal powers, to clarify the issues presented in the CSAT meeting “, it is stated in a press release of the Presidential Administration.
The meeting was attended by the Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the Minister of National Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, the Minister of the Interior, Cătălin Predoiu, the Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luminiţa Odobescu, the Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, the Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Radu Oprea , the director of SIE, Gabriel Vlase, a representative of SRI, the head of SMap, Gheorghiţă Vlad, presidential advisor Ion Oprisor, CSAT secretary Mihai Şomordolea, according to images sent by the Presidential Administration.
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
