Concerns over foreign interference in democratic processes are extending beyond the United States, with a recent report from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee raising serious allegations about the European Commission’s involvement in national elections across the continent, including Romania. The report, published on , details a decade-long campaign allegedly aimed at influencing election outcomes and specifically points to actions taken during the 2024 Romanian presidential election.
The core of the accusation centers on the European Commission allegedly pressuring social media platforms to censor content ahead of national elections in several countries – Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Moldova, Romania, and Ireland – as well as the EU-wide elections held in June 2024. According to the report, this pressure intensified following the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2023, with the Commission actively pushing platforms to aggressively moderate content before elections in Moldova, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, and Romania.
The Romanian presidential election, in particular, came under scrutiny. The report alleges that the European Commission took “the most aggressive measures of censorship” during the 2024 contest. This followed a controversial decision by the Romanian Constitutional Court in December 2024 to annul the results of the first round of the election. The initial results had favored Călin Georgescu, an independent populist candidate.
Romanian intelligence services claimed that Georgescu’s campaign had received covert support from Russia through a coordinated TikTok campaign. The services alleged a network of 25,000 accounts were used to artificially boost support for Georgescu. This claim formed the basis for the Constitutional Court’s decision to invalidate the first round of voting.
However, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee report casts doubt on the Romanian intelligence services’ assessment. Internal TikTok documents presented to the committee reportedly contradict the claim of a coordinated Russian influence operation. According to the report, TikTok stated it “found no evidence and was not presented with any evidence of a network of 25,000 accounts associated with Mr. Georgescu’s campaign” – the central accusation leveled by Romanian intelligence.
The report details that TikTok did block access to certain posts within Romania, but these posts remained visible in other countries and could still be shared. Despite this, the Romanian Constitutional Court proceeded to annul the first round of the election based on the intelligence services’ claims.
Further complicating the situation, the report alleges that investigations by Romanian tax authorities in late December 2024 revealed that the alleged Russian funding for Georgescu’s campaign may have actually originated from another Romanian political party. Despite these findings, the initial election results were never reinstated. In May 2025, a candidate favored by the political establishment ultimately won the rescheduled presidential election in Romania.
The U.S. Report suggests a pattern of the European Commission leveraging concerns about foreign interference to justify actions that may have influenced election outcomes. The allegations raise questions about the balance between protecting democratic processes and potentially overstepping boundaries in regulating online content and influencing national elections. The report highlights a growing tension between national sovereignty and the increasing role of supranational bodies like the European Commission in shaping political landscapes.
The accusations come amidst a broader context of increasing Russian efforts to influence political landscapes across Eastern Europe, including documented interference operations in Moldova and Georgia. Romania, as a key NATO and EU member with a strategic location near the Black Sea and its support for Ukraine, has become a focal point in these geopolitical tensions. The 2024 Romanian presidential election, took place in a highly charged political environment fueled by public dissatisfaction with corruption and economic issues, creating fertile ground for nationalist candidates and external influence.
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s report adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing debate about election integrity and the role of foreign actors in shaping democratic outcomes. The allegations against the European Commission are likely to spark further scrutiny of the DSA and its potential impact on national elections across the EU.
