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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"So, what should we make of all this? I’m always worried to see the rise of far-right candidates, but by now we have plenty of examples of establishment parties pointing to social media manipulation (often with some link to Russian interference) as the reason for their declining support instead of probing how the public has (often rightfully) become disillusioned with the politics they’re offering. I don’t know enough about Romania to know where this case falls, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s somewhere in the middle.

It doesn’t appear that TikTok intentionally manipulated its algorithms to promote Georgescu, but rather that actors took advantage of the way its platform is designed to get the results they were expecting — not unlike how Russian actors didn’t actually “hack” the 2016 US election. For now it’s worth watching to see where the Romanian case goes."

https://disconnect.blog/roundup-whats-going-on-in-romania/

#SocialMedia #Romania #TikTok #Algorithms #FarRight #CyberSecurity #Politics #Elections #Russia

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@remixtures As a Romanian living through this insanity, it's very much in the middle.

Effective use of disinformation on tiktok, but if that was the spark, the entire country was covered in gasoline and ready to go beforehand.

A leading party (PSD) that has effectively undermined the state of law enforcement and election integrity since the fall of communism.

An alternative (PNL) that ended up allying with PSD as a naked power grab.

An ineffective opposition (USR) more interested in chasing headlines than coordinating opposition.

A rising tide of conspiracy-brained neo-fascists that existed and were protected before Georgescu hit the scene.

And now, in the middle of a country in the process of burning down, we have a new parliament that's 1/3 fascists, 1/3 anti-fascists, and PSD playing politics like it's just another day at the office hemming and hawing about who to support.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@[email protected] Thank you very much for your report on the ground. Unfortunately, the situation in Portugal (where I live) is becoming very similar to that, mostly due to Chega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chega_(political_party)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

@[email protected] @[email protected]

same in UK with Reform becoming third largest party in many areas (although the UK's first past the post electoral system limits the amount of power "non mainstream" parties can get). Still worrying that around a third of folk across Europe seem to be perfectly OK with some level of fascism (but it may always have been the case, just hidden by short term economic gains of neoliberalism in the 90s and 00s)