Victory of Romania’s 'TikTok Messiah' is an alarm bell for Europe

The meteoric rise of Romania’s unknown extremist presidential candidate, Călin Georgescu, marks a stark premiere for Europe.

Despite repeated warnings about the onslaught of anti-Western social media disinformation across Europe, Georgescu’s bizarre first-round victory in Romania was made possible by a protest vote boosted by an unprecedented TikTok campaign, which now raises lots of questions in Bucharest and Brussels.

Romanian authorities are now calling on the European Commission to investigate TikTok over its breach of the EU Digital Services Act regarding its massive influence campaign for the anti-EU, pro-Russian presidential candidate.

"Suddenly, TikTok users were faced with the TikTok system pushing more and more clips of this candidate into the feed, into the content recommendation area," Valentin Jucan, vice-president of the Romanian Audiovisual Council, told Euronews Romania.

"And this is our question. Was the TikTok system, this risk to the public, a natural one? Did the TikTok system and algorithms work naturally or did TikTok deliberately modify its algorithms so that more and more Romanians receive and believe that all of Romania wants a certain candidate,” Jucan asked.

TikTok Messiah, 'robot candidate'

Already dubbed as the Tiktok Messiah because of his ultra-religious statements, Georgescu claims Romania must be neutral and that the war in Ukraine does not exist.

Praising Russia's Vladimir Putin, Georgescu blasts the EU as the enemy of Romanians, calls Romania’s antisemitic collaborationist World War II leaders "heroes," and says that COVID-19 doesn’t exist. He has a mission from God to save Romania, he says.

His statements match the years-long anti-EU, pro-Russian social media campaign in Europe, but the magnitude and sophistication of the TikTok boost for this little-known, independent candidate is now raising calls for TikTok executives to appear before the European Parliament over a possible breach of the EU Digital Services Act.

“We witness how democracies are under attack in front of our eyes. We witness how social media, especially TikTok, has become a key battleground for voters. Clicks over content.” Renew Europe Group's leader Valérie Hayer said. “Romania is a warning bell.”

As protests erupted in Romania’s main cities, the authorities are now under fire for missing Georgescu’s unprecedented boost. Former President Traian Basescu calls it a major failure of national security, asking for the secret services' explanation over what he called the “robot candidate”.

"This guy didn't meet with citizens, he didn't travel the country, he didn't campaign, only some AI manufactured messages to put him in the lead in the first round," Basescu told Euronews Romania.

"The fact that the security structures don't take any responsibility for the risk of having a president - a candidate for presidency in the second round - when we don't know who fabricated those messages, are we not electing based on the intelligence of a robot?”

Wrong tool for the wrong purpose

The Romanian political system, the national polls and the national media mostly missed the candidates’ silent rise over all of the mainstream candidates.

“So, on the one hand it is the kind of message that Georgescu is launching, which has nothing of substance behind it, but addresses people's deepest fears and grievances, which creates this kind of loyalty of followers," Dragoș Pîslaru, co-president of the Renewing Romania's European Project or Reper party, told Euronews Romania.

"Then on the other hand, we have China's algorithm and the potential influence that this transfer of know-how could have,” he added. "There is a connection between these anti-system candidates in Europe, the United States and China, which owns the network."

“The social media algorithm is not designed for better information, the social media algorithm is designed for the e-commerce players to be able to sell their products at the lowest price possible," Founder of Romania's Ethical Media Alliance Dragos Stanca told Euronews Romania.

"For the machine it doesn’t matter if we are talking about a shoe, a politician, a personal brand or a commercial brand or maybe dangerous ideology. It’s the same. They have to close the transaction so we will see the same messages again and again until we are convinced that we have to buy or vote," Stanca explained.

"It’s time we realise that we are using the wrong tool for the wrong purpose and our democracies are in danger if we keep going on that road.”

Meanwhile, as Romania gears up for the parliamentary elections this Sunday, Georgescu has had his first clash with the media refusing to answer questions at his first makeshift press conference that he called.

"Yes, I am not answering questions and i won't take any this evening," he told the journalists gathered outside of his home in the affluent town of Izvorani, just outside the capital Bucharest.

After they pressed him for answers, Georgescu lashed back: "Could you let me continue saying what I have to say? Please do not interrupt me."

Then, mid-sentence, he ran back inside.