BUCHAREST, Romania, April 27, (AP):  Romanians are confronting a deluge of online disinformation ahead of a fraught presidential election redo next week, including ominous claims that the NATO member country is surging toward "imminent war” with Russia. The campaign, attributed to unidentified anti-government and pro-Russian actors, underscores how large social media platforms can be exploited to fuel distrust and spin anti-Western narratives.

It's also a somber lesson for other democracies across the European Union. Romania’s political landscape was shaken last November when Calin Georgescu, a little-known, far-right populist, won the most votes in the first round of the presidential election, advancing to the runoff against reformist Elena Lasconi of the progressive Save Romania Union party.

Soon, allegations emerged of electoral violations and a Russian campaign promoting Georgescu, following declassified intelligence showing a highly-sophisticated, coordinated campaign via TikTok. Moscow denied it meddled. Romania’s Constitutional Court then annulled the vote and ordered a redo. Georgescu, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized NATO and the EU, is now under criminal investigation.

In March, he was barred from running in the May 4 election redo, prompting chaos on the streets of Romania's capital, Bucharest, as his incensed supporters staged protests that descended into violence. What happened in Romania unnerved Brussels and raised questions about foreign interference. The EU Commission responded by launching an ongoing probe into TikTok to determine whether it had violated the EU’s Digital Services Act in failing to deal with risks to Romania’s election.

Some 8.5 million Romanians aged 18 and above use the platform in the country of about 19 million. For its part, TikTok said it dismantled in December covert influence networks targeting Romanians, removing over 27,000 accounts that posted comments via a "fake engagement vendor” promoting the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party and Georgescu.

It also removed more than 1,100 accounts impersonating presidential candidates of all stripes. TikTok also said it has taken steps to protect Romania’s election integrity, including expanding its team of Romanian-speaking content moderators, partnering with a local fact-checking group, and in-app tools linking to official election information. But the disinformation didn't stop and it wasn't just confined to TikTok.