ROMANIA ELECTIONS, A NEW MYSTERY STARTS
They call him TikTok gate the scandal that engulfed the elections Romania and the social network itself, accused of having manipulated the presidential elections by favoring the far-right candidate Calin Georgescu. But a journalistic investigation by the investigative site Snoop revealed some disturbing details about the “Balance and Verticality” campaign associated with the winner of the first round, because it would have been financed by another party.
The audit completed by the Authornational tax administration agency (ANAF) at the request of thePermanent electoral authority (AEP) reveals, in fact, that the campaign launched last November was paid for by National Liberal Party (PNL), apparently dismantling the accusations of Russian interference made by Romanian intelligence, which has not yet commented on the results of the ANAF investigation.
THE COMPLAINT: “CLONED TIKTOK CAMPAIGN, NEVER SUPPORTED GEORGESCU”
Citing confidential sources familiar with the findings of this investigation, Snoop discovered the company's involvement Kensington Communicationalready used in other initiatives promoted by the liberals, such as the one to promote the former prime minister's book Nicolae Ciuca.
The agency recruited 130 influencers through the platform FameUp for the promotion of the message of the social campaign, specifying however that it was “a series of briefs, intended for public awareness campaigns“, without any electoral character and above all without any support for other candidates. The company therefore claims that its campaign has been 'cloned'because the name was changed without his will or that of the party, as well as the chosen hashtag.
So, the model prepared by the team would have been modified without their involvement, which is why “will file a criminal complaint for the relevant bodies to investigate the hijacking, bot attack and/or cloning of the campaign. If the campaign has been cloned or hijacked in favor of one candidate or another, we ask the competent bodies to take appropriate legal action“.
Yet, the agency did not explain why it made the payments anyway (the platform FameUP would have received approximately 100 thousand euros from Kensington Communicationhalf of what PNL received on November 6), despite these changes.
However, he distanced himself from the far-right candidate: “We would also like to point out that Kensington Communication has not done in the past and will not do in the future any promotional campaign for the person or candidate Calin Georgescu (or other candidates of this caliber) as the values of Kensington Communication are not in line with those promoted by this person“.
“INFLUENCERS TRAINED TO BYPASS TIKTOK CONTROL”
According to what is reported in a document from Supreme Defense Council of Romania (CSAT) and a report by the NGO Expert Forumthe influencers involved in the campaign followed a precise script according to which they had to describe the qualities of the future president without however directly mentioning the candidate Calina Georgescuyet some of them inserted the name in the comments on the videos and many user comments included the slogan to vote for it. In reality, we read in the document presented by CSAT on December 5, the campaign appears to have been designed for Georgescu and the influencers “they have been trained” per “avoid detection of content that does not comply with TikTok platform policies“.
However, this is not the only campaign identified in favor of Georgescu are TikTok: In another document declassified after the CSAT meeting, cryptocurrency expert Bogdan Peschir is listed as the author of donations for over one million euros. He confirmed to Free Europe that he had transferred money to accounts promoting Georgescu, insisting that he had not donated directly to the far-right candidate.
DOUBTS ABOUT ALLEGED RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Regarding alleged Russian interference, the campaign has been compared to that conducted by Russia in Ukraine before the civil war broke out in Donbass, because the methods and characteristics are the same, but no evidence of Russian interference emerged, on the contrary the analysis of the Kensington highlights that the influencers followed the instructions received from PNL.
A few days after the decision of Constitutional Court to annul the results of the first round of the presidential elections, the results of this investigation further inflame the situation in Romaniagiven that it was in fact taken on the basis of the hypothesis of Russian interference which now appears unfounded. Furthermore, the judges initially certified the regularity of the first round, then annulled it.
It should be noted that the ANAF investigation does not deny the hypothesis of Russian financingon which the Romanian intelligence would have evidence which, however, it has not shown, but sheds light on the accusations made against it Georgescualso because the involvement of influencers in electoral campaigns is a consolidated practice in the West, just think of the USA, where millions of dollars are invested to ensure the support of influencers and famous people.
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