EU Parliament Investigates TikTok for Election Misinformation

Brussels (Eurotoday) – The European Parliament questioned TikTok on its compliance with EU digital rules and election-related misinformation.

The European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection on Tuesday, December 3 interrogated TikTok representatives regarding how the company implements the EU’s digital rules in the context of a recent vote in Europe, especially Romania.

Concerning the Romanian elections in particular, the EU examined TikTok’s risk management processes in terms of information manipulation, the recommendation system, and third-party access to data. 

How is TikTok addressing election misinformation in Romania?

Representatives of TikTok said that they already shut down numerous accounts targeting Romanian audiences with electoral content. TikTok representatives asserted during a hearing that, from September until now, the social network has shut 66 thousand fake accounts in association with the electoral process in Romania.

Brie Pegum, Global Head of Product for Authenticity & Transparency at TikTok, said that a web of 78 accounts targeting the Romanian audience was eliminated. She also said that, similarly, a network of 22 accounts was toppled in September.

“Between September and yesterday, we removed 66 thousands fake accounts and many fake followers. There are also fake channels posing as political figures. We’ve blocked 260,000 spam and are constantly working to prevent misinformation and be as genuine as possible. In September, we discovered a network of 22 accounts targeting the Romanian public, which we dismantled.”

She also stated that the platform makes constant efforts to check accounts and networks. Pegum claimed that all contenders in Romania’s presidential elections were “labelled as such” by TikTok. “We did not make a distinction between those with a party and those without,” she expressed. 

Following the hearing, the president of the Renew Europe group, MEP Valerie Hayer, officially asked the president of the European Parliament to summon the chair of TikTok to ” account ” in the plenary session of the Parliament.