Big Tech accused of stonewalling European social media researchers

In Romania's 2024 presidential race, TikTok accounts that had spent years posting about fashion and manicures suddenly switched to promoting an obscure politician named Calin Georgescu. His posts, which espoused hard-line immigration views and anti-Semitic rhetoric, were viewed one hundred twenty million times. Georgescu, who had previously polled in single digits, stunned observers by winning the first round with twenty-three percent of the vote. Researchers now want to understand how that content was monetized through hidden influencer deals on TikTok. According to Ars Technica, Big Tech companies are stonewalling efforts to investigate.

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