Romanian Presidential Election Influenced by Foreign Interference

Extract

[...] Case Description The Romanian presidential elections, initially scheduled to take place at the end of 2024 to designate the next head of state, have been postponed to May 2025. This postponement is motivated by the arrival of Calin Georgescu, a former Romanian high-ranking official, independent far-right pro-Russian candidate, in first place in the first round of the votes) on November His arrival at the top of the poll has particularly surprised the country as well as political observers, as two months before the election, he was unknown to the Romanian political landscape.2. [...]

[...] From a societal perspective, the effects are also significant. In the Loupe podcast titled 'Russia infiltrating Europe: Romania facing disinformation' released on March the editor-in-chief of the International Relations section of Express explains that Russia's strategy is not insignificant. In fact, social media platforms like TikTok are heavily used in Romania (much more than in France), which contributes to widely reaching the Romanian population. For the Commander of the Army, Samuel Henry, this information war waged by Russia has contributed to fissuring an equilibrium that existed for about 15 years with the previous government by creating an anti-system sentiment. [...]

[...] Finally, the coordinated user network would have contributed to spreading the hashtag #C?lin Georgescu, in many posts talking about the presidential election and even in publications made by other candidates, contributing to also favoring the contents using the hashtag. 3. Potential impacts of this information war on the Romanian population From an individual perspective, the techniques used aim to create virality to overexpose social media users to certain content. The techniques have ultimately succeeded in influencing the Romanians: by increasing the presence of the candidate C?lin Georgescu's ideas on social media, increasing his legitimacy through astroturfing methods and promoting adherence to his ideas through targeted marketing messages. [...]

[...] Analysis of the attack The documents published by the constitutional commission therefore revealed the involvement of state entities in the financing and promotion of C?lin Georgescu's electoral campaign. The campaign mainly relied on the dissemination of false information (manipulation of information), using social media such as TikTok and paid influencers.6. The researcher Georgina Camelia Stanescu has been interested, in her study titled 'Fake News, Bots, and Influencers: The Impact of Social Media on Romania's' and published late 2024, in the mechanisms at play. [...]

[...] Recommendations The fight against Russian disinformation is not a new phenomenon. The big novelty is that it now adapts to new means of communication, allowing for viral amplification of messages to the population. In the context of an article by Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Director of the IRSEM at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, titled 'The fight against Russian disinformation: counter-propaganda without counter-propaganda?' published in 2017. This one already proposed solutions to counter this disinformation that is still adaptable to the case presented in Romania today. [...]