London, 6 December 2024 – TikTok has recommended content for the far-right, pro-Russia candidate in Romania’s presidential run-off election at a rate of more than five times than that of his opponent, a new Global Witness investigation shows.
During a test of the social media platform’s recommendation of political content, Global Witness investigators recorded a significantly greater amount of content promoting the right-wing populist candidate Călin Georgescu over content promoting his rival Elena Lasconi.
Investigators also found that one of the recommended videos contained gendered misinformation because it suggested that Lasconi would change the national anthem to the song playing in the post, the lyrics of which negatively reference boys dressing like girls. After we wrote to TikTok to tell them about this, they removed this video for violating their Community Guidelines.
Following Georgescu’s surprise victory in the first round on 24 November, reporters and regulators have questioned the impact of TikTok on the result. The European Commission has requested information from the platform on its handling of the election under the Digital Services Act, which applies within the EU.
Henry Peck, Senior Campaigner on Digital Threats, Global Witness, said:
"Our snap investigation raises serious questions about TikTok’s election integrity commitments. Despite already being the subject of scrutiny, in our test the platform’s algorithm obviously pushed one candidate over the other - days before a crucial run-off election. It’s right that the European Commission and Parliament examines TikTok’s adherence to the Digital Services Act."
One candidate favoured by the algorithm?
Global Witness investigators noted that in 10 minutes spent on TikTok’s For You page, the app recommended a total of 54 videos, of which 27 contained messages in support of one or the other candidate and three contained non-partisan political content. Research shows that users use TikTok for an average of close to 10 minutes at a time.
Of the 27 posts that supported one of the two candidates, 85% promoted Georgescu against 15% that promoted Lasconi. In particular:
- Two posts appeared from Georgescu’s official account, while one appeared from the official account for Lasconi
- 21 posts that weren’t from the official account of either candidate supported Georgescu, and three posts supported Lasconi
The dominance of videos for Georgescu over Lasconi took place despite the fact that we took measures to ensure that we expressed no political preference: We followed both candidates and no-one else; we seeded the account by watching the same number of videos from both candidates; and we watched all videos in the For You feed featuring either of the candidates.
When we wrote to TikTok to give them a chance to comment on these findings, they suggested that other factors may have influenced what videos we were shown, such as the length of time that we watched each video or where the videos were posted from.
TikTok also pointed out that the research only involved one test account. They stressed their commitment to election integrity in Romania, such as partnering with fact checkers, creating an in-app Election Center with authoritative information and disrupting three covert influence networks.
This investigation follows an investigation into TikTok’s content moderation during the recent Irish elections, prompting further questions about its ability to enforce its election policies. In that study TikTok’s moderation systems approved several ads containing clear and obvious disinformation in English and Irish. In response to that investigation, the platform confirmed that the ads breached its strict ban on political advertising and should not have been approved.