President Nicusor Dan gave assurances on Tuesday that the next civilian director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) will make combating Russian interference a priority of their term, and also spoke about the spread of disinformation on social networks, indicating that social media shouldn't be banned, but subjected to additional regulations following relevant debates.
Asked at the 'Europe at the Crossroads - Security, Prosperity and Our Common Future' Conference in Timisoara if the next director of the SRI will make combating Russian influence in Romania a priority, the president replied that he would make sure this happens.
"It was a major priority even before the November election, it's become even more of a priority after that moment, but, as I said, this was a technological shock they weren't prepared for. So, this is a very serious issue," the president said.
He argued that given that polls show that Vladimir Putin's rate of approval is 10-15%, "this means this is a serious national security issue."
"The intelligence services must defend national security and I promise that when a civilian director takes over, I'll make sure they do that," Dan said.
Asked about his opinion on the rising extremist wave in Romania, the president said that this is attributable to two causes. "The biggest is the people's distrust in the way politics and administration have been done in Romania, and on this we all have a lot of work to do, the second is the Russian influence, which, in my opinion, began immediately after 2014," said the head of the state.
He believes that the Russian influence brings out "some real frustrations of the people" that are exploited in a populist, isolationist and extremist direction.
"It is also a matter of technology, because the means they use are extremely, extremely sophisticated, and this is an entire discussion in itself for all Western, European countries - what to do technology-wise to counteract the disinformation and circulation of false information faster and more efficiently," said Dan.
Regarding social networks, which play an important role in disinformation, the president said that "we cannot imagine a world without them", but that we must "set that limit for aspects that affect the democratic balance."
Asked if democracy can coexist with social networks and their current algorithms, Nicusor Dan voiced his belief that during Calin Georgescu's campaign, TikTok was likely leveraged by individuals who understood its algorithms well, as back than the platform measured exposure through posts but lacked filters for exposure generated via comments. This gap was exploited as a campaign method - President Dan said.
He added that he supports the idea that "any entity with online exposure in Romanian should have an identity as a natural or legal person".
The head of the state also mentioned that the debate on the regulation of social media will continue in the coming period.
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