In November of 2024, Romanian politician Călin Georgescu was accused of receiving help from Russia through the global media platform TikTok, to influence Romanian elections. Here’s a breakdown of the situation: in the past Georgescu has openly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized NATO and the EU, but won 23 percent of the vote in late November, despite his support being in the single digits for much of the campaign (Vijesti, 2024). This is also especially interesting considering Romania’s past relationship with Russia, as it has been rocky since Russia declared war on Ukraine and Romania stated that they were standing in support of Ukraine. So the question is why Tik Tok? According to a declassified media report from the Romanian Information Service (SRI) over 25,000 accounts had been set up specifically to distribute content featuring Georgescu, with links under many of his videos leading to Russian Kremlin news and propaganda (Macsut, 2025). Russia is using the media to challenge democratic ideals in Romania, specifically through outside influence in Romanian elections and the use of misinformation and propaganda. 

Russia fuels a democratic decline in Romania by swaying Romanian elections for pro-Russian electorate Georgescu. This is especially undemocratic in the context of Romania because it violates two media restrictions regulating electorate influence during voting. Messages that could be considered “political advertising material” must be followed by two codes, one designating the candidate it supports and the other indicating whether it is sponsored advertising (Jean-Baptiste & Virginie, 2025). The media posts on Tik Tok not only violated both of these rights, but Romania’s domestic intelligence service, the SRI, announced that Georgescu’s social media campaign was “coordinated by a foreign state actor” with the help of a “very good digital marketing firm”(Vijesti, 2024). Though this may be seen as just since Georgescu is a supporter of Russian policies, it is illegal under Romanian law and unfair to the two main candidates running, as they had held the popular vote for a majority of the election. A key definition of democracy is when people in the given country have a say in who their vote goes towards, in which if elections are being swayed by outside forces and propaganda, it’s not truly a conscious vote by the people. 

Russia was also known to spend subsequent money on Georgescu’s campaign, in hopes to spread Russian propaganda. For example, many famous Tik Toker’s were said to have been “bought out” in some way, unbeknownst to their influence in the election. Alex Stremiteanu, who has more than 50.000 followers on TikTok, admitted in a post that it was “stupid” to participate in a paid campaign that was presented as an attempt to encourage people to vote. He said the hashtags he was supposed to use, including “2024 presidential election,” attracted “bots” in the comments section where they posted links that redirect viewers to Georgesku’s content (Vijesti, 2024). This especially is problematic in the context of democratic decline as President Iohannis said that Georgesku had spent no money on his campaign but was instead receiving illegal funding from an outside force (Macsut, 2025). This leaves an unfair disadvantage to candidates running, while also promoting the Russian agenda in many young voters who use Tik Tok.

References

• Jean-Baptiste Chastand, & Virginie Malingre. (2025). Romania takes steps to prevent social media manipulation during presidential election. Le Monde.fr; Le Monde. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/17/romania-takes-steps-to-prevent-social-media-manipulation-during-presidential-election_6740344_4.html
• Macsut, A. (2025. Fuelling the Fire: Russia’s Role in Romania’s Democratic Struggles. Kolegium Europy Wschodniej. https://www.kew.org.pl/en/2025/02/14/fuelling-the-fire-russias-role-in-romanias-democratic-struggles/
• Vijesti. (2024). How Russia influenced the elections in Romania. Vijesti.me; Vijesti.https://en.vijesti.me/world-a/evropa/736807/how-Russia-influenced-the-elections-in-Romania