Who is the most present presidential candidate on Tiktok. An independent account has collected 17 million views in a month
A report by Expert Forum shows that the chief of gold, George Simion, is the presidential candidate who has the most videos in which he is promoted on Tiktok. He is followed by the candidate of the PSD-PNL-UDMR-Minorities coalition, Crin Antonescu.
The non-governmental organization analyzed 600 inauthentic videos, meaning they belong to other people, not being the official accounts of the candidates. The specialists identified 270 inauthentic videos of Simion's promotion and 180 promotion of Crin Antonescu.
In the case of the other candidates, Nicușor Dan, Victor Ponta and Elena Lasconi, the number of videos of this type is significantly lower: under 50 appearances. In these cases, the attribution of the content as “promotion” was more difficult: some of the accounts posted and critics or contradictory messages.
“By comparison, George Simion and Crin Antonescu benefit-intentionally or not-of digital networks that generate inauthentic content, predominantly positive, which dominates the space associated with the relevant hashtags,” the report shows.
In the top of the accounts that use #georgesimion there are also accounts that do not support the candidate
From the first 20 tiktok accounts that create content with the #Gerogesimion hashtag, three of them promote other candidates.
George Simion's official Tiktok account is the fifth most active when it comes to using this hashtag. The account of his wife, Ilinca Simion, is also found in the top of the ten most active accounts.
In the case of the candidate Nicușor Dan, a small number of accounts with inauthentic coordinated behavior, which promotes his campaign, was identified. Estimates show below 50 such accounts.
The analysis of the content published under the main hashtag #nicusordan shows that many of the videos in trending are not supportive, but promote other candidates or discredit Nicușor Dan. The trend is also valid for Victor Ponta and Elena Lasconi.
In the Top 10 videos using Hashtag #nicusordan, the only account that explicitly supports the candidate is his official account.
Crin Antonescu has the least followers on Tiktok
In the case of Crin Antonescu, the official page has only 17,000 followers. By comparison, all the other candidates who have a chance, according to the surveys, enter the 2nd round, have at least 100,000.
Although Crin Antonescu does not have such a large number of followers, he is in the top of visibility. This happens, according to the Expert Forum analysis, through the inauthentic promotion networks.
In the last 30 days, videos with the Coalition candidate has generated a total of almost 15 million views and over 53,000 distributions.
When it comes to the hashtag #elenalasconi, in the general top of the videos there are accounts that are associated with Crin Antonescu.
“This practice suggests a basic digital amplification strategy by which the accounts are trying to expose their own content to the public of another candidate. Although it is not a violation of the platform rules, this tactic affects the clarity and relevance of the information flows, contributing to a form of intentional confusion through which you capture the attention of the audience from another bubble”.
Victor Ponta has the most active tiktok account in the past 30 days
The tactics of promoting the former PSD leader, Victor Ponta, is different from the other candidates. While the rest have networks dedicated to promotion, Victor Ponta is promoted by two techniques: promoting their own account and entertainment accounts used by other politicians.
Victor Ponta's page is in over 50 of the 100 most viewed videos in #Victorponta, with over 17 million views. He is the only candidate who has such a great visibility from his own account.
The third most active account that creates inauthentic content for Victor Ponta is the Swapera account, which before December 2024 Post of entertainment content.
Expert Forum contacted the owner of the account, which claimed that a promotion post costs 200 euros. Three videos published by Swapera generated 135,900 views.
The candidate is also visible by negative content. A relevant example is the hashtag #puiamonta, which has accumulated about 718,400 views during January-April 2025.
