The Supreme Council for National Defense (CSAT) convened on Thursday in meeting, found that Romania's electoral process was targeted by cyberattacks aimed at influencing the fairness of the vote, show documents presented by representatives of the authorities responsible for defense, public order and national security, the Presidential Administration reported on Thursday.

"The Supreme Council for National Defense does not have powers related to the unfolding of the electoral process, but if elements with an impact on national security are identified, these aspects must be analyzed in a CSAT meeting. At today's meeting, representatives of the authorities with powers in the field of defense, public order and national security presented assessments regarding potential risks to national security, generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber actors on IT&C infrastructures supporting the electoral process. According to the documents presented, the members of the Council found that there were cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the fairness of the vote," a statement from the Presidential Administration reads.

It was also confirmed that, in the current regional and especially electoral security context, Romania, along with other states on NATO's eastern flank, has become a priority for the hostile actions of state and non-state actors, especially the Russian Federation, which is increasingly interested in influencing Romania's public agenda and social cohesion.

The analysis of the documents also revealed that, in violation of electoral legislation, one presidential candidate benefited from massive exposure due to favoritism by TikTok, as the platform didn't single him out as a political candidate and didn't require him to mark his electoral video material with the unique identifier assigned by the Permanent Electoral Authority upon the appointment of the coordinating financial representative, an obligation set forth by the electoral legislation.

"As a result, the visibility of the candidate in question increased significantly compared to the other contenders who were recognized by TikTok algorithms as presidential candidates, and the content promoted by them was massively filtered out, exponentially diminishing their visibility among the platform's users. This preferential treatment was enhanced by TikTok's failure to comply with the decision of the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), which found that in fact, contrary to what was officially communicated to the Romanian authorities, the Chinese-owned company implemented none of the BEC decisions," the statement shows.

From this perspective, the CSAT emphasizes that it has taken note of the fact that by its failure to implement the BEC decision, the social network TikTok ran afoul of the legal norms regulating the electoral process, with an impact on its final result.

In this regard, the members of the Council asked the authorities with responsibilities in the field of national security and in the seamless unfolding of the electoral process, as well as the criminal investigation bodies to urgently take the necessary steps, as per their legal competence, to clarify the issues presented in the CSAT meeting. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)