Accusations Against TikTok Prompt Romanian Recount

UPDATE Nov 29, 2024 4:10 PM CST

Suspicions about TikTok's role in the first round of presidential elections in Romania have led the nation's highest court to order a recount of the vote by won by Calin Georgescu, despite representing no party. The social media platform is accused of giving "preferential treatment" to the far-right populist, the BBC reports. The Constitutional Court did not find Georgescu engaged in illegal campaign financing, a charge brought by two losing candidates. Georgescu, who has become a recent hit on TikTok, with more than 4 million likes, said he didn't do anything illegal to encourage that. TikTok also denied the allegations. "When Romanian authorities contacted us to flag a number of videos that lacked identifiers ... we took action on those videos within 24 hours," it said in a statement.

Nov 25, 2024 5:35 AM CST

Romania's political landscape is reeling after a little-known, far-right populist secured the first round in the presidential election, electoral data showed Monday, going from an obscure candidate to beating the incumbent prime minister. Calin Georgescu, a pro-Russian candidate who ran independently, will face off against reformist Elena Lasconi in a runoff in two weeks, per the AP and the BBC.

• Results: Georgescu, 62, was ahead after nearly all ballots were counted with around 23% of the vote. Lasconi of the progressive Save Romania Union party, or USR, followed with 19.17%. She beat by a slim margin incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party, or PSD, who stood at 19.15%. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, took 13.8%.
• Milestone: It is the first time in Romania's 35-year post-communist history for the PSD not to have a candidate in the second round of a presidential race, serving a huge blow to the country's most powerful party and underscoring voters' anti-establishment sentiment.

• Who is he? Reuters describes Georgescu as an ultranationalist and fierce critic of NATO, of which Romania is a member nation. He has described NATO's ballistic missile defense shield in the Romanian town of Deveselu as a "shame of diplomacy," and he wants to end his country's support of Ukraine in the Russian war. According to his website, Georgescu holds a doctorate in pedology, a branch of soil science, and held different positions in Romania's environment ministry in the 1990s. Between 1999 and 2012, he was a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Program.
• His rival: Lasconi, a former journalist and the leader of the USR, has been running on an anti-corruption reformist agenda. She told the AP ahead of the vote that she saw corruption as one of the biggest problems Romania faces and expressed support toward increased defense spending and continued aid to Ukraine. If she wins the final vote, she will be the first female president in Romania's history.
• President's role: The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy, and judicial appointments.

(More Romania stories.)