Mircea Toma: Romania and the Republic of Moldova are both subject to information warfare waged by Russia

Mircea Toma, member of the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), said that Romania and the Republic of Moldova are both subject to information warfare waged by Russia.

"Both Romania and the Republic of Moldova are being targeted by Russia through information warfare. These are two countries under attack in the literal sense, facing the weapon of 'information war'. Moldova defends itself with more adequate tools, as it has declared a state of necessity and can use defensive measures proportional to the attack. In Romania, we lack such instruments; we don't have a special legislative framework for situations in which we are under attack, and we learn about such threats from NGOs before we can react. I expect other state institutions to be just as vigilant, but I do not see them producing the necessary information," Toma told AGERPRES.

On Thursday, Mircea Toma presented to the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) a report by Expert Forum (EFOR) regarding the September 28 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova, which pointed to coordinated inauthentic behavior on TikTok, described as "illegal under the platform's rules."

Following debates, the CNA decided, at the proposal of its president, Valentin Jucan, to send a notification to TikTok under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) — a regulation introducing new rules for digital services, including online platforms and search engines, to create a safer and fairer online environment. The notification refers to the existence of coordinated inauthentic activity that could influence voters in Romania participating in the Republic of Moldova's parliamentary elections.

CNA member Georgica Severin stood apart with a dissenting view, opposing the Council's decision to notify TikTok. He argued that Romania lacks jurisdiction over elections in Moldova, that the EU Digital Services Act does not apply to a non-member state, and that the move would constitute unlawful interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.

Expert Forum reported the existence of "a coordinated network of 17 TikTok accounts that contributed to boosting the promotion of parliamentary candidate Vasile Costiuc, with more than one million views using #vasilecostiuc recorded just in the past week."

"This phenomenon is illegal in terms of platform behavior. The platform should not allow it; it should detect it on its own and stop it. Since it failed to do so, the fact that it was identified and made public by the NGO (Expert Forum), through its experts, prompted us to react. (...) What we did today was to notify the platform. And our jurisdiction is over Romania. The DSA applies in Romania. In Romania, there are more than 650,000 citizens with dual citizenship, whether they are Romanians who also obtained Moldovan citizenship or Moldovan citizens who also hold Romanian citizenship and live in Romania. They will vote in Moldova, but they are based in Romania. This trick is aimed at all voters, whether in Moldova or in Romania. Our reaction concerns the Romanian side," added Mircea Toma.