A preliminary report by the US Congressional Judiciary Committee titled “Europe’s decade-long campaign to censor the global internet” accuses the European Commission (EC) of trying to influence EU member states by controlling political discourse during election periods. It was the European Union that interfered in Romanian elections, not Russia, the report concludes based on evidence provided by TikTok.

Based on reports by TikTok, the report questions the need to cancel the 2024 presidential elections in Romania and accuses EC of involvement in the electoral processes in eight countries, including Romania and Moldova.

The report fueled reactions from far-right Romanian politicians. Head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, called for snap elections and said that his party could take over the country’s administration in the meantime.

"Considering all the statements made in recent months by Romanian state officials, considering the preliminary report of the Judiciary Committee of the United States Congress, we demand a return to democracy, to the people's vote, early parliamentary elections," said Simion.

Romanian authorities implied no immediate effect of the report, arguing that Russian interference in the electoral processes of European countries, including Romania, is well-documented by Nato, the EU, and the United Kingdom.

“The malicious meddling of the Russian Federation was not limited to a single social media platform, but is part of a broad manipulation campaign aimed at destabilising European democracies, an effort that has been ongoing for many years in the form of a genuine hybrid war,” President Nicusor Dan said in a response to the report.

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, in a press conference on economic matters, re-stated that cancelling the elections was a legitimate decision by a Romanian authority (the Constitutional Court) and can not be challenged.

“We understand and respect the concern of the US Congressional committees regarding freedom of expression. We as a country also respect this fundamental value and have no disagreements from this point of view,” Bolojan said, according to Euronews. 

“The legitimacy of President Nicușor Dan is given by the millions of Romanians who voted for him in last year's presidential elections," Bolojan commented.

According to the Republican-authored report, the EU meddled in Romania’s elections under the pretext of combating disinformation and manipulation, for example, by removing content related to Romania’s alleged entry into the Russia-Ukraine war. The entry, of course, did not take place and was primarily used to convince voters to back far-right, pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu.

Specifically, the report claims that the European Commission “pressured social networks to censor content before the 2023 parliamentary elections in Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Moldova, Romania, and Ireland, as well as the 2024 European elections.”

The authors criticise the fact that the EU requested all platforms to moderate content, arguing that “combating so-called hate speech or disinformation” and blocking content globally violates Americans’ online freedom of expression in the United States.

The chapter related to Romania is highlighted separately and contains numerous internal TikTok documents, especially email exchanges between the network and electoral authorities in Romania, but also with the Digital Directorate of the European Commission.

The report is drafted in the context of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a wide-ranging EU digital rulebook that applies to social media and other online platforms, setting obligations on content moderation, illegal content removal, transparency, protection of minors, and more. The chair of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has openly criticised the DSA as incompatible with the American free-speech tradition, arguing its content moderation rules could amount to overbroad censorship and conflict with US values and tech policy.