EU regulators will assess if TikTok’s advertising policies and the systems it uses to recommend content to users are in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is aimed at preventing the spread of disinformation and halting illegal activities online.
“Whenever we suspect such interference, especially during elections, we must act swiftly and firmly,” von der Leyen said in a statement, external.
“It should be crystal clear that in the EU, all online platforms including TikTok must be held accountable.”
Georgescu’s election campaign had been focused primarily on TikTok and, although Moscow has denied interference, Romanian intelligence said Russia had identified the Nato member state as an enemy state and a priority target.
TikToks promoting the candidate were not marked as election content, which is illegal in Romania.
One account paid $381,000 (£300,000) on posts for Georgescu, who denied spending any money himself on the platform.
TikTok has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting “it is categorically false to claim [Georgescu’s] account was treated differently to any other candidate”.
Although the platform allows election content to be posted and shared organically, paid political advertising is banned.
After the run-off vote was cancelled, TikTok said that “when Romanian authorities contacted us to flag a number of videos that lacked identifiers… we took action on those videos within 24 hours”.
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