Romanians return to Tiktok to orient themselves in elections / Who is the candidate with the most followers

Many young Romanian young people resort to the Tiktok video-sharing platform again to receive guidance on how to vote in Sunday's presidential elections, which are resumed after they have been canceled following Russian interference with Suspects Tiktok accounts, writes Reuters, according to News.ro.

With about 9 million Tiktok users, the country with 19 million inhabitants registered an increase in the number of such accounts last year, during a campaign that eventually led to the cancellation of the November 24, notes the quoted source. Moscow denied the accusations of manipulation.

In the first round, from November 24, of the canceled ballot, the candidate of the extreme right Călin Georgescu, quoted in one -figure polls before the poll, climbed the first place against a content explosion on Tiktok who favored.

Now, George Simion, the leader of the radical right -wing formation the alliance for the Romanian (gold), leads the list of presidential candidates with 1.3 million followers on Tiktok. At a great distance, with about 233,600 followers, is Victor Ponta, a former prime minister whose political vision became ultra-nationalist. The remaining candidates, centralists, have even fewer followers.

Simion's Tiktok clips, 38 years old, combine nationalist rhetoric with an emotional speech, with direct speeches in front of the camera, images from political assemblies and clips to create a sense of personal connection.

“The time of the Renaissance has come,” he told the followers in a video posted on Tuesday. “Our nation will find its way again. We have in us the power to reborn and move on, more united and stronger,” proclaims Simion.

Remus Ştefureac, executive director of Inscop Research, said that all presidential candidates are now appreciating the essential role of Social Media in the campaign. “If we analyze our presidential campaign, we can say that each of the relevant candidates has tried to build strong online and social media operations, so they have invested a lot of resources in this type of campaign,” he explained.

The tiktok audience in Romania is predominantly young

64.6% are between 18 and 24 years old and 33.7% are between 25 and 34 years old, according to Start.Io, a mobile advertising platform analyzing the data of the application users.

Young people interviewed by Reuters in the center of Bucharest this week said they get information from various online sources, including Tiktok.

Andrei, an engineer who refused to give his full name, said he has a limited confidence in what he sees Tiktok, and the media news sites seem more credible. But he says that one third of the people he knows have based their political decisions on Tiktok materials.

Andreea, a student who also did not reveal her full name, said she was largely influenced by Tiktok videos. She watched many political videos on Tiktok and they helped her feel closer to the life of the candidates.

Tiktok, in the European Commission's viewfinder

Tiktok gives assurances that it has formed a working group to ensure efficient content moderation and has launched a media education campaign to help users identify misinformation. In January, the company stated that it was blocked the creation of over 116,000 spam accounts in Romania in the second half of December.

He also stated in a recent report that, in the second half of 2024, he eliminated over 27,000 accounts operated through a “false commitment supplier” that promoted gold and Georgescu.

The Romanian Government ordered that the campaign materials on social networks be clearly labeled as such, while the local press wrote that the Central Electoral Bureau ordered the elimination of over 500 wrong or labeled messages.

Following the canceled elections, the European Commission initiated an official procedure against Tiktok for the alleged inability to limit interference.

Ştefureac says that Romania's experience in 2024 should serve as a lesson for the future of democracy worldwide. “We cannot take our good democracies and we must find ways to control and moderate the better how political and electoral communication is managed through social media,” the expert believes.