● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportMedium impact1 negative
Researchers denied TikTok API access for disinformation study ahead of Romanian election
Key points
- TikTok denied API access to researchers studying disinformation in the 2024 Romanian election.
- Candidate Calin Georgescu's posts received 120 million views before the vote.
- TikTok later flagged 116k accounts and took action against 27,000 fake accounts.
- Romanian intelligence suggested Russian coordination in the online campaign.
TikTok Denies Research Access
Adriana Iamnitchi, chair of computational social sciences at Maastricht University, and her team were denied access to TikTok's Application Programming Interface (API) in October 2025. They sought to investigate how pro-Calin Georgescu content was monetized on TikTok through hidden influencer marketing and livestreamed political content during the 2024 Romanian presidential election. TikTok cited reasons including failure to prove established researcher status, explain commercial interests, or meet security requirements.
Rise of Calin Georgescu
In the weeks leading up to Romania's November 2024 presidential vote, TikTok accounts that previously focused on fashion began promoting Calin Georgescu, a politician with hard-line views. His posts garnered 120 million views, leading him to win the election's first round with 23 percent of the vote, despite previously polling in single digits.
Platform Action and Allegations
Two months after denying researchers API access, TikTok flagged 116,000 accounts as potentially compromised and took action against over 27,000 fake accounts. These accounts were part of a coordinated network run by a third-party "fake engagement vendor" promoting Georgescu and his party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). TikTok stated it did not know the network's operators or origin. Declassified Romanian intelligence later indicated Georgescu "benefited" from significant exposure and preferential treatment by TikTok, with alleged Russian coordination in the online campaign.
Election Outcome
The first round of voting was annulled. In the subsequent runoff in May 2025, independent candidate Nicușor Dan defeated AUR's George Simion, who replaced Georgescu after he was barred from running again. Georgescu described the annulment of the 2024 results as a "formalized coup d’état" by Romania's Constitutional Court.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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Reporting from
TikTok denied researchers access to its API for studying disinformation campaigns during the 2024 Romanian presidential election, despite later identifying and acting against a network of fake accounts promoting a candidate. This denial hindered independent investigation into the platform's role in political influence operations, raising concerns about transparency and compliance with the EU's Digital Services Act.