EU Commission: TikTok must retain all election data in the EU

Following the surprise success of the pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu in the Romanian presidential election, who campaigned primarily on TikTok, the EU Commission has stepped up its monitoring of the social media app under the Digital Services Act (DSA). With a "preservation order", the Commission wants to ensure that TikTok stores data and internal documents relating to "actual or foreseeable systemic risks" for elections.

Preserving evidence

This is intended to preserve available information and evidence in the event of a further investigation by the Commission into TikTok's DSA compliance. The storage order concerns national elections in the EU between November 24, 2024 and March 31, 2025, meaning that it not only relates to the current election in Romania, but also to the Bundestag elections planned for February, for example.

Specifically, the requirement includes internal documents and information about the design and functioning of the video app's recommendation systems and the way in which the company addresses the risk of deliberate manipulation through "coordinated, inauthentic use of the service". The spin-off of the Chinese group ByteDance must also "freeze" potential evidence of "any systematic violation of the terms of use" with a focus on political advertising.

Campaign from Russia?

According to the Commission, this is in response to information "pointing to foreign interference from Russia" in the Romanian election. Georgescu is said to have benefited from a coordinated social media campaign linked to foreign agencies.

President Klaus Iohannis has since published the intelligence services' findings. As a result, Romania's highest court has declared the first round of the presidential elections invalid. It must now be repeated. The run-off election between Georgescu and Elena Lasconi should actually have taken place at the weekend.

Last Friday, the Commission sent an official request for information on a DSA basis to TikTok. In it, it called on the operator to provide more information on the management of the risks of information manipulation.

"We are also stepping up contacts with digital and cyber regulators across Europe in light of emerging evidence of systematic inauthentic activity," said the Commission's new Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen. TikTok promised to continue cooperating and rejected "speculation and inaccurate reports".

(mki)