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  • The European Union demands TikTok’s response to Romanian files suggesting Moscow’s role in vote

    The European Union demands TikTok’s response to Romanian files suggesting Moscow’s role in vote

    LONDON — The European Union said Friday it sent TikTok an urgent request for more information about Romanian intelligence files suggesting that Moscow coordinated influencers on its platform to promote an election candidate who became the front-runner in the presidential election.

    The 27-nation bloc’s executive branch is using its sweeping digital rulebook to scrutinize the video sharing platform’s role in the election, which ended with the far-right populist Calin Georgescu coming from out of nowhere to take top spot in the first round of voting.

    Declassified files released by Romanian authorities earlier this week suggest that a pro-Russia campaign used the messaging app Telegram to recruit thousands of TikTok users to promote Georgescu.

    It is unclear from the intelligence release whether Georgescu was aware of the alleged campaign or assisted in it.

    European Commission officials said they asked the video sharing platform to comment on the files and to provide information on actions that it’s taking in response. It’s the second time the commission has asked TikTok for information since the election’s first round of voting on Nov. 24, and comes a day after it ordered the Chinese-owned platform to retain all election-related files and evidence.

    TikTok did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

    “We are concerned about mounting indications of coordinated foreign online influence operation targeting ongoing Romanian elections, especially on TikTok,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a post on X.

    TikTok has 24 hours to respond to the EU request, officials told a press briefing in Brussels. Georgescu will face pro-EU reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a final vote on Sunday.

    “TikTok needs to step up resources to counter information operations ahead of the election weekend,” Virkkunen said.

    Georgescu’s unexpected rise in the polls has plunged the European Union and NATO country into turmoil and spurred the authorities to release the files.

    Romania’s intelligence services alleged that one TikTok user paid $381,000 to influencers on the platform to promote content about Georgescu. They said they obtained information that “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate the candidate’s popularity.

    Some of the thousands of social media accounts used in the campaign were allegedly created years ago but were only activated in the weeks leading up to the first round vote, the files indicated.

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    AP writer Stephen McGrath in Bucharest contributed to this report.

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  • Romanian prosecutors lose appeal to jail Andrew Tate. He will remain under house arrest

    Romanian prosecutors lose appeal to jail Andrew Tate. He will remain under house arrest

    BUCHAREST, Romania — A court in Romania’s capital on Thursday rejected an appeal by prosecutors to jail divisive internet influencer Andrew Tate, who will remain under house arrest amid a second human trafficking investigation against him that allegedly involves minors.

    The Bucharest Court of Appeal also ruled to keep Tate’s brother, Tristan Tate, under judicial control, which typically involves restricting communication with certain people and reporting periodically to the police. The brothers’ spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said that the judge also lifted certain restrictions regarding the brothers’ communication with alleged victims in the new case.

    “They are free to meet and communicate with these alleged victims based on the close relationships they share and the children they have together,” she said, adding they “vehemently deny all allegations” against them.

    After the court’s decision, Andrew Tate posted on X that the prosecutors had made a “desperate attempt to put us in jail with no evidence.”

    The ruling comes weeks after Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, launched raids on four homes, including the Tates’ in Bucharest and nearby Ilfov county. After being briefly detained, prosecutors lost a request to keep the brothers in custody for 30 days, but appealed the decision.

    Andrew Tate, 37, and brother Tristan Tate, 36, both former kickboxers and dual British-U.S. citizens, are already awaiting trial in Romania in a separate human trafficking case along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year.

    In the new case, DIICOT said that it was investigating allegations of human trafficking, including the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, forming an organized criminal group, money laundering and influencing statements. The alleged crimes date between 2014 and 2024.

    The agency said the defendants used the coercive “loverboy” method to exploit 34 vulnerable victims who were forced to produce pornographic materials for a fee online, and that more than $2.8 million (2.5 million euros) it generated was kept by the defendants.

    An unnamed foreign man also sexually exploited a 17-year-old foreigner, DIICOT alleges, and said he kept all of the $1.5 million (1.3 million euros) made from the criminal activity. The same man “repeatedly had sexual relations and acts” with a 15-year-old, the agency alleges.

    After the court’s decision, Andrew Tate wrote in a post on the social media platform X that the prosecutors had made a “desperate attempt to put us in jail with no evidence.”

    Andrew Tate, who has 10 million followers on the social media platform X, is known for expressing misogynistic views online and has repeatedly said that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He was previously banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.

    One of the brothers’ lawyers, Eugen Vidineac, responded to the court’s decision Thursday by saying that it shows that Romania “is a country where the judicial system is diligent and impartial and does not succumb to sensationalism.”

    “We are looking forward to clearing my clients’ names and proving their innocence,” he added.

    After the Tate brothers’ arrest in December 2022, they were held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest. They were later restricted to the Bucharest municipality and nearby Ilfov county, and then to Romania.

    In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled in that case that prosecutors’ case file against them met the legal criteria and that a trial could start but didn’t set a date for it to begin.

    In July, a court overturned an earlier decision that allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania as they await trial.

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    Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara.

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