The Romanian Government has stated it will step up its efforts to “combat illegal content online”.
The news on March 14 came ahead of contentious presidential elections following the annulled ballot of November last year due to claims, considered unsubstantiated in Romanian media, of Russian interference.
Ivan Bogdan, minister of economy, research, innovation and digitalisation, announced firm measures against online manipulation, stressing that Romania already used three types of advanced software to detect “false content”.
He said Romania applied strict European legislation and did not tolerate disinformation online.
Bogdan also pointed out there were mechanisms implemented at the global, European and national level to combat disinformation and manipulative content.
In a press release on March 13, education minister Daniel David said: “Freedom of expression can stand as long as it does not promote illegal content, as long as it does not attack human dignity, as long as it does not represent bullying.”
David also shared a guide on Combatting Illegal Content Online for teachers, parents, pupils, students “so that they understand what rights they have and how they can notice, for example, online content that is illegal and should be removed”.
This included incitement to hatred based on criteria including the level of education or social category, glorifying totalitarian regimes or denying their crimes, distributing false or misleading information about public health, elections, social crises, economic/banking crises to induce panic or influence public opinion.
David stressed: “Technology itself, including social media, is not a good or bad thing.”
He said freedom of expression was important “but in a democracy there are limits”.
“Likewise, we must have those limits on social networks, as we have in the physical world, nothing more.
“We don’t need to bureaucratise and become obsessive about control, but we also cannot accept that everything is permitted. At that point, we are no longer a society, we are no longer a democracy, we are a state and we are rather an anarchic group,” he said.
🇷🇴Online censorship in Romania goes into effect
The same people who have called Georgescu's supporters "uneducated extremist idiots" and called for their arrest/m#rder will now be removing content at their discretion
Anything can be labeled as extremist, or as disinformation.… pic.twitter.com/osEyL3uZa1
— iosefinapascal (@iosefinaoficial) March 13, 2025
On March 11, the government together with TikTok and Facebook announced “a partnership” to fight disinformation, focusing on quickly removing content.
On March 27, officials will conduct a test run simulating potential electoral scenarios to evaluate rapid intervention capabilities.
Although the measures reportedly would serve to protect citizens and the maintenance of a safe and transparent online environment, critics noted there was a major risk of abuse and censorship.
Romania pushed to address so-called illegal content, hate speech and manipulated information more aggressively after approving a bill in late February that introduced stricter regulations on social media platforms and online content providers.
While aligned with the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), Romania’s legislation went further in its restrictions.
Key features of the bill were speedy illicit content removal, with material deemed to be inciting violence, hate speech or disinformation on major national-interest topics to be removed within 15 minutes of publication, something which was not required under the DSA.
During this period, platforms would be expected to use algorithms, potentially AI-driven, to analyse and classify content.
For accounts registered or active in Romania, platforms must adjust algorithms to ensure “potentially harmful content”, broadly defined to include incitement to hatred, dangerous disinformation, or manipulation, did not reach more than 150 users.
Platforms would be barred from promoting such “potentially harmful content” linked to Romanian accounts.
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has decried recent allegations of censorship within the European Union as just a “buzzword” pushed by “conspiracy theorists”. https://t.co/rZOKYwpTQv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 15, 2025
Institutions including the Permanent Electoral Authority, the National Audiovisual Council, the Romanian Intelligence Service and even the Ministry of Defence will have the power to directly request the deletion of posts or the blocking of users’ access to them.
If State institutions validated more than 30 per cent of user reports of illegal or harmful content on a platform within 30 days of the law’s enactment, the provider would face heavy fines.
Additionally, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) failing to block designated “harmful” sites could face fines ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 lei (approximately €2,000 to €10,000).
The bill allowed authorities, including the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) and the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), to order content removal or site blocking without prior independent judicial review in certain cases.
This meant that once content was blocked, affected users must take legal action to restore their posts — a lengthy court procedure that would likely continue until the original message’s relevance and impact had effectively disappeared.
Critics warned that with such a wide range of State institutions being able to request the direct removal of posts, there were strong concerns of possible political use or even abuse, especially regarding the elections.
They also noted the lack of clear, transparent and well-defined criteria on what constituted criticism, irony or contrary opinions.
COMMENT: The documents relied upon to annul Romania’s presidential election first round provide no concrete evidence of Russian state interference or any links between presidential candidate Calin Georgescu and Russia, writes @GElefteriu. https://t.co/AMkt8cxIEp
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 9, 2025
The law was drafted and proposed in late February, with rapid movement through Romania’s legislative process.
It had gained traction despite concerns over foreign interference in the annulled 2024 presidential election. That was particularly linked to populist candidate Călin Georgescu’s TikTok success, which Romanian intelligence attributed to possible Russian influence.
Lawyers from CMS Law Now, a leading international law firm with 79 offices in more than 40 countries and more than 5,000 lawyers worldwide, warned it would be a challenge for providers required to implement mechanisms to detect and categorise potentially harmful content and remove identified illegal content within 15 minutes of publication.
They said that if other countries did not adopt similar rules, providers would have to either apply these stricter measures universally or develop separate mechanisms to identify and categorise content posted by and for users in Romania.
“While we understand the need for effective mechanisms to combat illegal content, we believe that the urgency imposed by this proposal, the strong reliance on AI, and the broad definition of ‘potentially harmful content’ could lead to errors and potentially infringe on freedom of expression,” they concluded.
American Vice President JD Vance criticised the EU at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, accusing European nations of anti-democratic behaviour. https://t.co/pYdi5l8OKu
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) February 14, 2025
