DISINFO: Romania illegally cancels first round of elections in order to block the raise of a humane, non-anti-Russian candidate
SUMMARY
Today [N.B. 08.12.2024], elections were supposed to take place, the second round of elections in Romania. But it happened so that in the first round, the most votes were won by a nobody.[...] His last name is Georgescu, I assure you, no one has ever heard it before, including in Romania itself.
[...] he did not spend a single cent on his election campaign. He conducted his election campaign on TikTok. And in order not to let this person, who is just a no-name, win the elections, they are cancelling the first round absolutely illegally.
The Constitutional Court, [...] initially recognised the first round of these elections [...] then [...] Brussels [called] and said "are you crazy? What kind of TikToker do you have, who is not anti-Russian, whose statements are quite human, normal, pro-Romanian? No-no-no", they said, "You can't allow it".
And the Constitutional Court says: "oh, okay, fine, we changed our minds, these elections were unfair, we are cancelling them." They couldn't even find a reason why they are cancelling them, they are blaming Georgescu's TikTok campaign as the reason for cancelling these elections.
RESPONSE
False claim. On December 6, 2024, after the first validation, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the vote of the first round of presidential elections. In a press release, the court said the annulment was based on Article 146(f) of the Constitution, emphasising the need to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process.
The decision was based on declassified intelligence documents indicating foreign interference in the elections - a covert campaign in support of Călin Georgescu, Liberatatea reports.
Georgescu ran a viral TikTok campaign focused on ending aid for Ukraine. Several Romanian influencers have apologised for promoting Georgescu in exchange for money. Romanian authorities have therefore also ordered an investigation into the source of funding for these TikTokers, Libertatea reported.
“While TikTok’s role in amplifying disinformation during the Romanian election campaign has been in the spotlight, new evidence shows that Facebook’s Meta and Instagram platforms were used to spread aggressive political messages, unverified claims, and polarizing narratives,” the declassified report by Romania's Serviciul de Informații Externe says.
Meta Platform Inc allowed a network of Facebook pages to post more than 4,100 political ads promoting polarizing narratives, attacking Romania’s pro-EU presidential candidate Elena Lasconi and promoting far-right figures, including Calin Georgescu, Bloomberg reports.
The campaign was run across 25 seemingly separate Facebook pages. Their websites lacked legal or editorial information, and many were linked by shared IP addresses, identical web design, common email and ad-tech configurations, indicating an organized effort to influence the election, according to a report by the digital threat research groups Reset Tech and Check First, Bloomberg continues. The network which boosted political posts on Facebook and Instagram spent as much as €264,909 on advertising.
Officially Călin Georgescu claims not to have spent any money on his campaign.
The report echoes earlier findings by Romanian media outlet Context, which revealed that the Alliance for the Union of Romanians had developed a network of inauthentic Facebook pages, masquerading as news portals, to amplify propaganda and conspiracy theories, Bloomberg reported.
See previous false claim Elections in Romania are unfair, as well as elections in France.