Influencers, content creators, administrators of pages, profiles, channels or groups who actively carry out promotional or amplification activities of electoral content in collaboration with a competitor will be considered “participants in online electoral communication”. They will need to register with the Central Electoral Commission and indicate, among other things, who they are collaborating with and whether the activity is remunerated. The provisions are found in a draft amendment to the Electoral Code drafted by the CEC and proposed for public debate, which introduces new rules for online electoral communication, electoral advertising and the activity of third parties, reports IPN.
The project introduces the notions of “electoral content creator”, “electoral influencer”, “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and “online electoral advertising”, with rules applicable to online platforms, messaging applications, search engines and other digital services. Advertising will have to indicate the competitor and, if applicable, the person who ordered or financed it, and expenses will be declared and reported.
Audio and video materials generated or manipulated with the help of AI, which create a false impression of authenticity, will need to be appropriately marked. At the same time, regulations will also target the use of automated accounts, bots, and other mechanisms used for artificially amplifying electoral content, hiding the identity of those who finance it, or creating the appearance of independent sources.
The project also provides for a regime for “third parties” – individuals or organizations that, independently of competitors, carry out activities to influence the vote and incur expenses for this purpose. They will have transparency and reporting obligations and will have to declare to the CEC the accounts and pages used, and the changes will be communicated within three working days. Unpaid political opinions, journalistic activity, impartial electoral education, research, and political satire will not, in themselves, constitute activities of a third party.
CEC also proposes a Public Archive of online electoral advertising, with data on funding, competitors, broadcasting and expenses. The information will be published within a maximum of 24 hours from declaration and kept for at least seven years.
Online promoted electoral polls will have to indicate the financier, author, period, methodology, and sample, and promotion expenses will be reported. Fines ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 lei for individuals and from 9,000 to 15,000 lei for legal entities are provided for non-registration or declaration of incomplete or inaccurate information.
