site.btaPresidents of Romania, European Commission Discuss Social Media Security

President Klaus Iohannis Saturday posted on X that following the latest developments in Romania, he had talked on the telephone with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. He wrote: "We agreed that we need to strengthen the security of social media, following the elections in our country."

Von der Leyen also wrote on X: "Good phone call with Klaus Iohannis. The Commission will keep working so that platforms respect their obligations under the Digital Services Act regarding elections in Europe. It's for the Romanian people to decide what's best for their country, free from foreign interference."

On December 6, Romania's Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the presidential elections. Also on that day, the European Commission sent the TikTok platform a new request for information after documents declassified by the Romanian authorities revealed the country was targeted by "aggressive hybrid Russian attacks" in the context of the elections. Earlier in December, representatives of the company told the European Parliament that the platform had removed seven million fake likes on TikTok posts about the Romanian elections.