On May 4, 2025, presumably the first round of presidential elections was held in Romania — an event that, as in other countries in the region, is actively reflected in the digital environment, including TikTok. Using the tools from Exolyt — TikTok Social Intelligence Platform we collected data on political activity in this social network, analyzing video content associated with political hashtags over the past 30 days.
As a result, seven relevant political hashtags were identified, four of which are directly associated with specific candidates for the presidency of Romania. These hashtags become indicators of both organic and potentially coordinated activity on TikTok. This research aims to study the dynamics, reach, and content of videos posted using these tags in the lead-up to (or immediately after) the key electoral event.
General Statistics by Candidate
Analysis timeframe: April 5, 2025 — May 4, 2025.
| Metric | #georgesimion | #crinantonescu | #nicusordan | #victorponta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total videos | 6,800 | 3,608 | 4,962 | 1,980 |
| Total views | 143 million | 100 million | 176 million | 67 million |
| Total likes | 6.1 million | 1.1 million | 2.7 million | 3.9 million |
| Total comments | 594 thousand | 234 thousand | 325 thousand | 152 thousand |
| Total shares | 659 thousand | 409 thousand | 1.1 million | 513 thousand |
| Average views per video | 21,023 | 27,830 | 35,470 | 33,830 |
| Average likes per video | 892 | 306 | 536 | 1,959 |
| Average engagement rate | 15.3% | 11.6% | 13.7% | 13.1% |
Let’s analyze the political actors’ hashtags found according to the same scheme:
#georgesimion
The hashtag #georgesimion is associated with candidate George Simion, who positions himself as a sovereigntist and patriotic politician.
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
Data was collected on 6,800 videos that were posted during the study period.
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of views:
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of posts:
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* Dot size depends on the number of posts.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
Reach Statistics
- Total views: 143 million
- Number of videos: 6,800
- Most frequent overlaps with other hashtags: #romania (37%), #aur (28%), #calingeorgescu (21%)
Account Activity
- Top account by views (din.cmpulung) reaches about 25 million views
- patrioatalromaniei2025 leads in number of publications with approximately 261 videos
- Several accounts, particularly calingeorgescu1gm, show an abnormally high likes-to-views ratio (around 0.7)
Content Strategy
- Most even distribution of videos by duration (from short to long)
- Pronounced emphasis on democracy themes (15% of videos) and freedom
- Significant increase in activity in the last week before the election (by 3.5 times)
- Low proportion of verified accounts (0.8%), which may indicate predominantly organic support
Engagement
- Average engagement rate increased from 2.6% at the beginning of the period to 8.8% by the election date
- Peak engagement recorded on April 30 (10.9%)
- The most effective videos reach 30-35% engagement
#crinantonescu
The hashtag #crinantonescu is associated with candidate Crin Antonescu, former leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL).
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
Data was collected on 3,608 videos that were posted during the study period.
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of views:
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of posts:
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* Dot size depends on the number of posts.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
Reach Statistics
- Total views: 100 million
- Number of videos: 3,608
- Most frequent overlaps: #romania (34%), #nicusordan (31%), #pnl (28%)
Account Activity
- Dominant account by views: ct.un.muntz
- sorin4755 leads in number of publications (137 videos)
- Accounts tanyaa._a and cosmin_takes demonstrate the most effective videos (>20% engagement)
Content Strategy
- Videos of medium duration (30-60 seconds) predominate – 26.4%
- Election (31.9%) and presidency (25.7%) themes are often mentioned in titles
- Notable presence of official accounts (3.6% verified)
- Activity peaks occur in the last days of April
Engagement
- Sharp increase in engagement in the last week (from 0.8% at the beginning to 5.1%)
- Highest engagement noted on April 30 (8.1%)
- Median views-to-likes ratio higher than for most competitors
#victorponta
The hashtag #victorponta is associated with former Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
Data was collected on 1,980 videos that were posted during the study period.
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of views:
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of posts:
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* Dot size depends on the number of posts.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
Reach Statistics
- Total views: 67 million (lowest among candidates)
- Number of videos: 1,980 (lowest among candidates)
- Most frequent overlaps: #nicusordan (39%), #romania (37%), #georgesimion (36%)
Account Activity
- Dominant account by views and publications: victorpontaoficial (149 videos)
- The candidate’s official account demonstrates extremely high engagement indicators (>400%)
- Highest proportion of verified accounts (8.9%)
Content Strategy
- Contrasting strategy: shortest median duration (34 sec), but highest proportion of long videos (>3 min)
- Frequent mention of “prim” (prime) – in 28% of videos
- Greatest overlap with hashtags of other candidates (comparative strategy)
- Fewest videos, but highest average likes per video (1,959)
Engagement
- Abnormally high engagement peaks on April 22-23 (32-41%)
- Uneven distribution of engagement throughout the period
- Most effective videos from the official account achieve record indicators
#nicusordan
The hashtag #nicusordan refers to Nicușor Dan, the current mayor of Bucharest.
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
Data was collected on 4,962 videos that were posted during the study period.
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of views:
Top 30 accounts with maximum number of posts:
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* Dot size depends on the number of posts.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
Reach Statistics
- Total views: 176 million (highest among candidates)
- Number of videos: 4,962
- Most frequent overlaps: #romania (40%), #elenalasconi (36%), #usr (30%)
Account Activity
- din.cmpulung and viitorul.nostru0 dominate by views
- detectordeminciuni.ro leads in number of publications with a record 460 videos
- Several accounts, including tanyaa.a and emre..official, show high efficiency (>20% engagement)
Content Strategy
- Highest median video duration (57 seconds)
- High frequency of “elections” mentions (44.7% of videos) – more than other candidates
- Strong overlap with party hashtags (#usr)
- Active use of verified accounts (3.0%)
Engagement
- Steady growth in engagement from 1.4% at the beginning of the period to 6.2% at the end
- Peak activity occurs on April 29-30 (359 videos per day)
- Consistently high average views per video (35,470)
Number of videos by day
- Peak days for #georgesimion: 04.30 (887 videos), 05.01 (654 videos)
- Peak days for #crinantonescu: 04.29 (284 videos), 04.30 (220 videos)
- Peak days for #nicusordan: 04.29 (359 videos), 05.01 (350 videos)
- Peak days for #victorponta: 04.10 (189 videos), 04.30 (161 videos)
Weekly Trends
All candidates show a sharp increase in publications in the last week before the election (04.28-05.04), which is expected user behavior ahead of an important political event:
- In the last week, the number of videos with the hashtag #georgesimion increased 3.5 times compared to the beginning of the period
- The number of videos with the hashtag #nicusordan grew by 97% in the last 7 days
- #crinantonescu showed an increase of 82% in the last week
- The smallest growth was noted for #victorponta (56%), which may indicate a more uniform communication strategy
Distribution of Publications by Period
| Period | #georgesimion | #crinantonescu | #nicusordan | #victorponta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04.05-04.13 | 472 | 812 | 705 | 499 |
| 04.14-04.22 | 1,564 | 760 | 1,057 | 363 |
| 04.23-04.29 | 1,606 | 946 | 1,936 | 672 |
| 04.30-05.04 | 3,158 | 1,090 | 1,264 | 446 |
Video Duration Analysis
| Duration | #georgesimion | #crinantonescu | #nicusordan | #victorponta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 15 seconds | 18.0% | 12.1% | 14.0% | 12.6% |
| 15-30 seconds | 19.9% | 17.7% | 20.6% | 17.0% |
| 30-60 seconds | 19.8% | 26.4% | 24.1% | 23.2% |
| 1-3 minutes | 21.3% | 20.9% | 18.7% | 23.2% |
| More than 3 minutes | 21.0% | 22.8% | 22.6% | 24.0% |
| Median duration | 41 sec | 50 sec | 57 sec | 34 sec |
The distribution of videos by duration shows that:
- Content for #georgesimion has the most uniform distribution by duration
- #nicusordan and #crinantonescu have more long videos (median duration >50 sec)
- #victorponta shows a contrasting situation: the shortest median duration (34 sec), but the highest proportion of videos longer than 3 minutes (24%)
Key Accounts and Activity
Top accounts by number of videos
- #georgesimion: patriotalromaniei2025 (261 videos), sorin4755 (138 videos)
- #crinantonescu: sorin4755 (137 videos), calo.mircea (119 videos)
- #nicusordan: detectordeminciuni.ro (460 videos), ema27085 (185 videos)
- #victorponta: victorpontaoficial (149 videos), sorin4755 (102 videos)
Accounts creating content for multiple candidates
20 accounts were identified that publish content for all four candidates, which may indicate:
- Neutral information channels
- Commercial accounts using political content to attract an audience
- Potentially coordinated campaigns
Top 5 such accounts:
- sorin4755 (518 videos for all candidates)
- patriotalromaniei2025 (380 videos)
- vremuri.noi (206 videos)
- viitorul.nostru0 (180 videos)
- politica.si.educatie (85 videos)
Verified accounts
- #victorponta: 8.9% verified accounts
- #crinantonescu: 3.6% verified accounts
- #nicusordan: 3.0% verified accounts
- #georgesimion: 0.8% verified accounts
The significant difference in the proportion of verified accounts may indicate different levels of institutional support for the candidates. #victorponta has the highest share of official and verified accounts, which may reflect a more structured campaign.
Engagement and Effectiveness
Engagement rate by period
For all candidates, there is a tendency toward increased audience engagement as the election date approaches:
| Period | #georgesimion | #crinantonescu | #nicusordan | #victorponta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beginning of period | 2.6% | 0.8% | 1.4% | 3.3% |
| Middle of period | 3.6% | 1.0% | 1.5% | 10.1% |
| Penultimate week | 6.5% | 2.1% | 3.5% | 3.8% |
| Last week | 8.8% | 5.1% | 6.2% | 14.9% |
Days with maximum engagement
- #georgesimion: 04.30 (10.9%), 05.02 (10.0%)
- #crinantonescu: 04.30 (8.1%), 04.29 (6.4%)
- #nicusordan: 04.30 (8.1%), 05.02 (7.3%)
- #victorponta: 04.23 (41.5%), 04.22 (32.7%)
Abnormally high engagement rates for #victorponta in late April may indicate successful viral videos or a targeted campaign.
Top videos by effectiveness
All candidates have videos with high engagement levels (>20% engagement rate). However, videos from the victorpontaoficial account stand out with extremely high indicators (>400% likes to views), which may indicate artificial inflation or a technical error in the data.
Content Analysis
Keywords in titles
Frequency of political terms in video titles:
| Keyword | #georgesimion | #crinantonescu | #nicusordan | #victorponta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| alegeri (elections) | 22.7% | 31.9% | 44.7% | 34.2% |
| presedinte (president) | 29.3% | 25.7% | 33.6% | 26.1% |
| vot (vote) | 19.0% | 16.3% | 27.6% | 16.5% |
| tur (round [of elections]) | 20.4% | 15.7% | 18.1% | 18.1% |
| democratie (democracy) | 15.0% | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1.5% |
Notable features:
- In content about #nicusordan, “elections” are mentioned most frequently (45% of videos)
- In videos about #georgesimion, the topic of democracy appears 5-10 times more often than for other candidates
- Content about #victorponta often contains the mention of “prim” (prime) – in 28% of videos, which is significantly higher than competitors
Related hashtags
Top 5 accompanying hashtags (excluding common ones like #romania, #fyp):
- #georgesimion: #aur (party), #calingeorgescu, #gs1, #diaspora, #democratie
- #crinantonescu: #pnl (party), #psd (party), #româniaînainte, #bucuresti, #usr (party)
- #nicusordan: #elenalasconi, #usr (party), #nd11, #sosoaca, #dianasosoaca
- #victorponta: #nicusordan, #elenalasconi, #georgesimion, #crinantonescu, #aur
Interestingly, #victorponta has the greatest overlap with other candidates, which may indicate a comparative positioning strategy.
Signs of Potential FIMI/DIMI in Election Campaigns
Analysis of data on political hashtags in Romanian TikTok has revealed several suspicious patterns that may indicate the possible presence of foreign or domestic information manipulation (FIMI/DIMI).
1. Anomalies in engagement metrics
Extreme engagement indicators:
- The official victorpontaoficial account has videos with a likes-to-views ratio above 400% (for example, 10,240 views and 100,696 likes), which is technically impossible without manipulation
- Several videos from victorpontaoficial are in the top 5 for effectiveness and show abnormally high indicators (>400% likes to views)
- The #victorponta hashtag shows sharp engagement peaks on April 22-23 (up to 41.5%), significantly deviating from normal values
Artificially uniform distribution of metrics:
- Large hashtags show statistically improbable equal distribution of videos among candidates:
- #viral_video: approximately 193.8 million videos for each of the four candidates
- #foryoupage❤️❤️: approximately 180.2 million videos for each of the four candidates
- #tik_tok: approximately 152.5 million videos for each of the four candidates
Exact metric matches:
- Between nicusordan and victorponta, identical values were found for multiple hashtags:
- #nicusordan: exactly 13,039 videos for both
- #romania: exactly 7,963,755 videos for both
- #elenalasconi: exactly 21,387 videos for both
- Similar exact matches are observed for three candidates (crinantonescu, nicusordan, victorponta) for hashtags #america (12,325,221), #Trump (11,427,705) and others
2. Concentration of activity
Dominance of individual accounts:
- For #nicusordan, one account (detectordeminciuni.ro) published 460 videos, which is almost 10% of all content with this hashtag
- 20+ accounts have been identified that systematically publish content for all four candidates, including sorin4755 (518 videos for all candidates)
- Several accounts (din.cmpulung, patriotalromaniei2025) show disproportionately high activity for individual candidates
Asymmetry in content creation:
- The difference in the proportion of verified accounts (from 0.8% for #georgesimion to 8.9% for #victorponta) indicates different types of support
- #georgesimion leads in the total number of videos (6,800), but has the smallest share of verified accounts, which may indicate a decentralized, potentially coordinated campaign
3. Hashtag coordination between campaigns
Asymmetric overlaps:
- The victorponta campaign shows suspiciously high overlap with other candidates:
- 77% of victorponta hashtags overlap with crinantonescu
- 76.3% of victorponta hashtags overlap with georgesimion
- 81.3% of victorponta hashtags overlap with nicusordan
- However, the reverse ratios are much lower (27.7-51.9%), which may indicate a strategy of “joining” popular hashtags
Exclusive connections between pairs of candidates:
- Groups of hashtags used only by specific pairs of candidates have been identified:
- georgesimion and nicusordan: 30 exclusive shared hashtags (including #for: 375 million videos)
- crinantonescu and nicusordan: 19 exclusive shared hashtags
- crinantonescu and georgesimion: 9 exclusive shared hashtags
- Such connections may indicate division of target audiences or coordination between certain campaigns
Categorization of hashtags by candidates:
- victorponta’s top categories include “nicusordan” (36 hashtags, 27.9% of activity) and “georgesimion” (8 hashtags, 0.2%), which shows a cross-promotion strategy
- For nicusordan, 97.3% of all activity is concentrated in his own category, indicating a more isolated strategy
4. Temporal patterns
Coordinated activity surges:
- All candidates show a sharp increase in the number of videos in the last week before the election, but with varying intensity
- April 30 marked a peak of activity for all candidates (887 videos for #georgesimion, 220 for #crinantonescu)
- All candidates show a parallel increase in engagement in the last week of the campaign
5. Content strategies
Thematic emphases:
- In videos about #georgesimion, the topic of democracy appears 5-10 times more often than for other candidates (15% of videos)
- Content about #nicusordan focuses on elections (45% of videos)
- Videos about #victorponta often contain the mention of “prim” (prime) – in 28% of videos, which is significantly higher than competitors
Video duration:
- #victorponta demonstrates a contrasting strategy with the shortest median duration (34 seconds), but the highest proportion of long videos (>3 minutes)
- #nicusordan and #crinantonescu have longer videos on average (median duration >50 seconds)
Conclusions about potential FIMI/DIMI
The patterns discovered collectively indicate a high probability of manipulations in the Romanian TikTok information space during the presidential elections:
- Technical impossibility of some metrics (likes exceeding views by several times) is direct evidence of artificial manipulation of statistics.
- Statistically improbable coincidences of indicators between different candidates with accuracy down to single units in volumes of millions of videos indicate systemic coordination or artificial origin of data.
- Exclusive connections between pairs of candidates may indicate coordination or the presence of shared “shadow” content providers serving different campaigns.
- victorponta’s asymmetric strategy of using other candidates’ hashtags may represent a deliberate tactic to increase the visibility of their campaign at the expense of the popularity of other candidates.
- The contrast between the number of verified accounts may reflect different approaches to campaigns: from more institutional (victorponta) to more decentralized, but potentially coordinated (georgesimion).
While it is impossible to definitively determine the origin (foreign or domestic) of these manipulations without additional data, the combination of signs indicates a high probability of coordinated information operations of varying scales for all candidates studied.
Conclusions
General conclusions for all candidates
- Content volume and activity: #georgesimion leads in total number of videos (6,800), which may indicate more active support on TikTok. However, #nicusordan (35,470) and #victorponta (33,830) lead in average views per video.
- Publication dynamics: All candidates showed a significant increase in activity in the last week before the election, but the most pronounced dynamics were for #georgesimion (3.5-fold increase).
- Content strategies: Candidates demonstrate different approaches to video duration and themes. #georgesimion emphasizes democracy and freedom, #nicusordan focuses on elections and voting, #victorponta highlights the role of prime minister.
- Audience engagement: General trend toward increasing engagement indicators closer to the election date. #victorponta shows the highest engagement peaks, but also the most uneven distribution.
- Campaign coordination: Accounts have been identified that systematically create content for all candidates, which may indicate a commercial approach to political content or coordinated campaigns.
- Institutional support: Significant difference in the proportion of verified accounts (#victorponta – 8.9%, #georgesimion – 0.8%) may reflect different levels of official support and campaign organization.
Conclusions by individual candidate
#georgesimion
- The largest number of videos and strongest growth in activity indicate a well-organized support network
- Low proportion of verified accounts with high activity suggests predominantly organic, grassroots support
- Emphasis on national identity and democracy in content corresponds to his political positioning
- Even distribution of video duration shows a flexible approach to formats
#crinantonescu
- More moderate content volume with gradual increase in activity
- Notable overlap with party hashtags indicates support from party structures
- Predominance of medium-length videos (30-60 sec) may reflect a more traditional, structured approach to communication
- Average proportion of verified accounts (3.6%) indicates a balance between official and organic support
#nicusordan
- Leadership in total number of views demonstrates high content effectiveness
- Highest frequency of election mentions indicates a mobilization strategy
- Strong connection with party hashtags (#usr) reflects strategic partnership
- High activity of individual accounts (detectordeminciuni.ro with 460 videos) may indicate a coordinated campaign
#victorponta
- Lowest number of videos, but high effectiveness (highest indicator of likes per video)
- Maximum proportion of verified accounts (8.9%) demonstrates the institutional nature of the campaign
- Abnormally high engagement indicators require additional verification for possible inflation
- Emphasis on past experience as prime minister reflects positioning strategy
Recommendations
- For monitoring political campaigns:
- Use engagement metrics, not just the number of publications, to evaluate effectiveness
- Identify and track “cross-posting” accounts that publish content about multiple candidates
- Analyze anomalies in indicators (e.g., extremely high likes/views ratios)
- For political campaigns:
- Consider growing audience engagement in the last week and adapt content strategy
- Pay attention to verified accounts as a tool for increasing trust
- Use various formats in terms of duration, corresponding to trends on TikTok
- For further research:
- Conduct more detailed content analysis using linguistic methods
- Research network interactions between accounts to identify coordinated campaigns
- Compare dynamics on TikTok with other social platforms for a comprehensive assessment of digital campaigns
UPDATED
Based on an analysis of video content posted by Gheorghe Simion on TikTok six weeks before the Romanian presidential election on 4 May 2025, a number of FIMI/DIMI (false/misleading information and disinformation/misinformation indicators) can be identified, as well as persistent disinformation narratives. A systematic analysis is provided below.
Coverage period: March 22 – May 4, 2025
Number of high-reach videos: more than 20 clips
Views of individual videos: from 143,000 to 3.3 million
Main audience: Romania (50-70%), diaspora — predominantly Italy and Germany (15-30%)
FIMI/DIMI-indicators
1. Undermining trust in the electoral system (Delegitimization of elections)
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Repeated claims about fraud, the presence of “4 million dead souls” in voter lists.
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Calls to fight for “democracy” and “return to constitutional order”.
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Key quotes:
-
„Morții votează”
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„Nu sunt aici pentru a recunoaște o fraudă…”
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2. “Enemy Within” narrative
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Regular mentions of “ciocoi”, “corupți”, “mafie”, “trădători”, “lovitura de stat”.
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Accusations against media, the Constitutional Court, and other candidates of betraying the interests of the people.
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The image of the enemy — the elite who have usurped the will of the people.
⟶ DIMI-indicator: Delegitimization of opponents and institutions, fueling distrust.
3. “National rebirth” rhetoric (Restoration rhetoric)
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Religious and messianic imagery: „Sâmbăta lui Lazăr”, „națiunea renaște”, „chemare la unitate”.
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Promises to restore „adevărul”, „demnitatea”, „credința”, „România profundă”.
⟶ FIMI-indicator: Use of emotionally charged but unspecified concepts to create an image of a “lost past” and a “bright future”.
4. Mobilization and pressure
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Calls for election observation, mass activity, “control of polling stations”.
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Emphasis on “your vote is decisive”, “go vote to defeat the dead”.
⟶ DIMI-indicator: Social pressure, reinforced by claims of a systemic threat to election integrity.
5. Support for an alternative candidate (Călin Georgescu)
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Systematic assertion that „președintele ales este Călin Georgescu”, despite the fact that voting has not yet ended or been officially recognized.
⟶ FIMI-indicator: False representation of the “predetermined” result.
6. Engagement of foreign audience
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Many videos are addressed to Romanians abroad.
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Themes: homesickness, identity, “your vote matters”.
⟶ DIMI-indicator: Emotional pressure with elements of nationalistic appeal.
Disinformation narratives
| Narrative | Content |
|---|---|
| “Elections are falsified” | Claims about deceased people on the lists, elite manipulations |
| “We were deprived of round 2” | Unfair exclusion of “real” candidates |
| “Western interference” | Indirect references to external conspiracies, USA and OMV mentioned |
| “National awakening” | Messianic rhetoric, heroization of the people, demonization of opponents |
| “Diaspora is the key to salvation” | Appeals to feelings of guilt and patriotism among migrants |
George Simion’s communication on TikTok during the election campaign contains many signs of FIMI/DIMI and is based on strategies characteristic of disinformation operations:
- delegitimization of institutions,
- emotional mobilization through religious and nationalistic codes,
- strengthening distrust in official procedures,
- informational exploitation of the diaspora.
These practices require broader monitoring, especially in the context of a possible second round on May 18 and attempts at international influence on public opinion.
This publication was developed by a research team under the leadership of Mikhail Doroshevich, PhD.
