Călin Georgescu’s political campaign and the unexpected turn of events in Romania at the end of last year sparked heated controversies not only on local but on EU level as well. While the case is highly politically charged, in this blog post I will take a more neutral approach to the situation: a look into how social media changed the well-known elections landscape and what can we soon expect on EU level. This is particularly interesting, in my opinion, as the Călin Georgescu’s case reflects a major trend in the regulation of the political campaigns online. Across the Atlantic, in the USA, political advertising is not strictly regulated, but in Europe with the new regulation on political advertising and the ongoing investigation on TikTok after the Romanian elections the current state of play will soon change.

Since 1950s traditional media was a dominant force in shaping voter’s opinion during electoral campaign. TV appearances of candidates played a crucial role in shaping their image and bonding with people sharing their political views. In 2000s social media presence started slowly gaining influence up until 2016 U.S. Presidential elections when social media became dominant over traditional media. While the political presence of candidates on TV is heavily regulated, the state of play on social media as a new phenomenon is vague and unclear. The rules of political content vary from different social media platforms, but for the sake of this analysis we will focus on the most controversial one – TikTok.

After scandals and regulatory pressure, in October 2019 TikTok announced that political ads will be blocked globally and no one is allowed to buy ads if their content is political. However, unpaid, user-generated content is allowed as long as no one is paying for it.

Georgescu’s campaign

On 24th of November 2024 in Romania was held the first round of the Presidential elections in which unexpectedly the candidate Călin Georgescu, who was initially viewed with minor chances of winning, defeated Elena Lasconi – the leader of Save Romania Union (SRU), winning 22.9% of the vote (approximately 2 million votes).  During the election campaign Georgescu heavily relied on his presence on TikTok which is used from more than 9 million users in Romania. Georgescu’s TikTok account was created in fall 2022 and grew to over 540,000 followers by the first-round vote, with millions of views across his videos. The center of his strategy was to post excerpts from TV appearances. While on TV reached audience can be thousands of people, on TikTok Georgescu gained millions of views. The President candidate also used his TikTok profile to build his overall media image by posting videos while attending church, practicing judo and doing sport activities. The campaign was also built around hashtags like #călingeorgescu which gained massive usage and triggered TikTok’s autocomplete feature. A dedicated campaign sound, “We vote for Călin Georgescu,” appeared in over 11,800 posts.

Post-elections drama

Following the surprising outcome, two of the losing candidates, Christian Terheș and Sebastian Popescu, filed complaints with the Constitutional Court claiming that Georgescu’s campaign primarily on TikTok violated the national legislation. In December, President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence reports from Romania’s security services: Ministry of Internal Affairs (General Directorate of Internal Protection), the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Romanian Intelligence Service, and the Special Telecommunications Service. According to the revealed information, there was “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” via TikTok and Telegram and over $381,000 in payments were made to influencers to boost Georgescu’s popularity.

On December 5, the European Commission issued a ‘retention order’ to TikTok under the Digital Services Act, ordering TikTok to freeze and preserve data related to actual or foreseeable systemic risks its service could pose on electoral processes and civic discourse in the EU. Later, the Commission opened a formal investigation against the platform probing whether the platform breached rules by failing to mitigate election-related misinformation and manipulation risks.  

On December 6, with an unprecedented Ruling No. 32 the Romania’s Constitutional Court annuled the entire first-round election.

Elections annulment

According to the Romanian Court, the way in which the electoral process for the election of the President of Romania in 2024 was conducted affected the free choice of the Romanian to express their vote. According to the decision fair election must meet the following requirements which were found to be violated:

  • Voters to form their opinion by being properly informed was violated by the fact „that the voters were misinformed through an electoral campaign in which one of the candidates was aggressively promoted, carried out by circumventing national electoral legislation and by abusing the algorithms of social media platforms“. Georgescu received preferential treatment on social media which led to „distortion of the voters’ expression of will“.
  • Еnsuring equal opportunity of all candidates by limiting spending on electoral advertising was violated by „a clear inequality between the candidate who manipulated digital technologies and the other candidates participating in the electoral process“.
  • Georgescu has infringed the electoral legislation relating to the funding of the electoral campaign relating to the presidential elections as online electoral advertising must always be identified as such and be transparent, both in terms of the identity of its sponsor and the dissemination technique used.

The Court also highlighted that political advertising can sometimes become a “vector of disinformation,” particularly when its political nature is concealed, originates from external sponsors, or employs advanced targeting and distribution techniques to manipulate public opinion. These concerns align with the principles outlined in Regulation (EU) 2024/900 of the European Parliament and Council, which emphasizes transparency and accountability in political advertising.

                                                           Unlawfully paid or organic content

Authorities and legislators in different countries face the challenge of having to catch up with the constantly changing Internet environment. Online and offline environments seem like two completely different worlds but in the end – people (and voters in particular) are the same.  A political campaign on TV and political campaign on social media have one major difference – user’s involvement. While watching a TV commercial or a debate  you just consume content which were previously strictly regulated with rules, while on social media everyone can have a voice. It will be more than interesting to see how regulation will maintain the balance between preserving electoral rights and guaranteeing lack of censorships.

Next steps: what can we soon expect.

New rules on political advertising becoming applicable: the Political Advertising Regulation came into force in 9 April 2024 but currently only the definitions (Article 3) and the prohibition of discriminatory restrictions based on the place of establishment (Article 5(1)) are applicable. The other provisions will become applicable on 10 October 2025.

The investigation against TikTok: no time frame – DSA does not set any legal deadline for bringing formal proceedings to an end.

The re-do of the Romanian elections will be on May 4, 2025: Georgescu will most probably run again for President.