In the lead-up to the election, a campaign utilizing the hashtag “stability and integrity” overwhelmed Romanian TikTok. Influencers shared videos outlining their ideal qualities in a future president: “stability”, “progress”, “a patriot”.
They did not point to a specific candidate.
They were paid to create these videos through a marketing platform named FameUp, which provides brands with the ability to recruit influencers en masse to endorse products. However, the influencers claimed ignorance regarding the source of their compensation.
FameUp chose not to comment to the BBC.
Cristina, an influencer from Iasi, stated she found the job proposal unproblematic. She inwardly reasoned one of the 14 candidates must have been the financier and concluded it was a clever strategy, thinking it was not political propaganda but an initiative to encourage voting.
Some influencers neglected to disclose that the posts were paid content, violating TikTok’s rules which prohibit paid political advertising.
Though the ads refrained from mentioning Georgescu’s name, influencers interviewed described an onslaught of supportive comments for him that surfaced under the videos. Romeo Rusu, a micro-influencer from Constanta with 25,000 followers, was taken aback when he saw “dozens of comments” endorsing independent candidate Calin Georgescu instantly after his post—totaling around 300.
These comments gained attention after TikTok’s announcement of the removal of a network exceeding 27,000 inauthentic accounts that “employed fabricated profiles to post comments concerning the Romanian elections”.
The originators of these fake accounts remain unknown.
Experts believe the tactic of inundating unrelated videos with pro-Georgescu comments aimed to sway TikTok’s algorithm, thereby increasing his visibility on users’ feeds.
A TikTok spokesperson assured the BBC that during the presidential campaign, the platform “thwarted millions of fake engagement attempts, eliminated hundreds of thousands of spam accounts, prevented the impersonation of political candidates, and dismantled three covert influence operations with restricted impact”.
“We remain in close collaboration with local and EU authorities and team up with local organizations to amplify credible information regarding elections,” they stated.
Uncertainty surrounding the campaign persisted until January when an unexpected revelation emerged.
The Romanian Tax Authority unveiled that the #stabilityandintegrity campaign was actually funded by the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL), who were advocating for their own candidate in the elections.
In reply, the PNL told Romanian journalists from Snoop that their campaign had been usurped to bolster support for Georgescu.
