TikTok is now subject to no abut two the Digital Services Act (DSA) investigations. European Union announced on Tuesday that it has opened a formal procedure focused on electoral risks, especially in connection with the recent elections in Romania.
The investigation will focus on TikTok’s recommendation system, mainly “risks linked to coordinated inauthentic manipulation or automated exploitation of the service,” according to the commission. The EU will also look at TikTok’s policies on political ads and paid political content.
“On both counts, one of the suspicions the commission will investigate is whether TikTok has diligently mitigated the risks of specific regional and linguistic aspects of national elections,” the body said in a press release.
The move follows an order for data retention The EU hit out at TikTok earlier this month amid concerns about election meddling on the short video platform following a shock first-round result in Romania’s presidential election.
The retention decision covered EU national elections spanning a period of more than four months – from 24 November to 31 March 2025 – underscoring the scale of the Commission’s alarm as it works to uphold DSA on a major platform.
The framework for online governance within the EU has since then end of August 2023required larger platforms like TikTok to assess and mitigate a range of risks that could arise on their services – including risks to election security and democratic processes. Failure to do so can result in penalties of up to 6% of global turnover.
Although no DSA fines have been issued on any platforms so far, back in the summer TikTok agreed to some product changes that ended an earlier commission inquiry into problems with addictive design. And the bloc’s lawmakers are clearly eager for the regulation to move the needle past actually reduce risks to web users.
Declassified intelligence reports
Regarding the electoral process in Romania, the opposite seems to be true: classified documents from several government agencies propose TikTok failed to prevent fake accounts from being used to artificially boost and algorithmically boost content promoting a pro-Russian, far-right candidate in the first presidential vote. The country’s highest court has since annulled the result.
The commission said the decision to open an investigation into TikTok’s strategy for election security in Romania takes into account information obtained from declassified intelligence reports from government agencies and “third-party” reports.
“The investigation also follows the analysis of the risk assessment reports submitted by TikTok in 2023 and 2024, the responses to the Commission’s requests for information and internal documents provided by TikTok,” the EU added, referring to a series of data requests that DSA operators have sent to the company since the regulation’s rules for very large online platforms (aka VLOPs) took effect last year.
While it remains to be seen what the outcome of this latest proceeding will be, the opening of formal proceedings opens up additional enforcement powers, such as the ability to issue interim measures if the risks are felt to be pressing.
The importance the bloc attaches to this latest investigation is signaled by the inclusion of a statement from EU President Ursula von der Leyen herself, who wrote: “We must protect our democracies from any form of foreign interference. Whenever we suspect such interference, especially during elections, we must act swiftly and decisively.”
“Following serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential election by using TikTok, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok has breached the Digital Services Act by failing to address such risks. It should be crystal clear that in the EU all online platforms must , including TikTok, be held accountable,” von der Leyen added.
In slightly more softening lines, Henna Virkkunen, blockets new Vice President for Technical Sovereignty, Security and Democracysaid she “looks forward to working closely with TikTok to address any issues that may arise.”
TikTok spokesperson Elliott Burton issued a response, sending a statement in which the company claimed: “We have protected the integrity of our platform through over 150 elections around the world and continue to proactively address these industry-wide challenges. TikTok has provided the European Commission with extensive information about these efforts, and we have openly and publicly detailed our strong actions.”
“We do not accept paid political ads, we proactively remove content that violates our disinformation, harassment and hate speech policies, and continue to work with the European Commission and regional and national authorities to address inquiries and discuss concerns,” it added TikTok.
Regarding the Romanian election specifically, the company claims it discovered and disrupted five small, secret networks targeting the election — and published details of what it found here. That too claims to have removed “hundreds of thousands” of fake accounts and “millions” of fake likes and followers. TikTok also suggests that it has responded promptly to content-related requests from authorities under Romanian law to date and says it continues to do so.
