EU eyes high-stakes presidential election in Romania: Democracy tested by disinformation

Romania is about to re-run a high-stakes presidential election, fuelled by a political crisis that has engulfed the country for the last five months. At the end of November, the ultranationalist Calin Georgescu sent shockwaves through the EU by winning the first round of the vote. But the Constitutional Court annulled the result in December, because of allegations of electoral violations and manipulation through social media. Indeed, the role played by TikTok has come under intense scrutiny, with the European Commission now saying that it has grounds to suspect that the platform was in breach of its obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act.