ANAF Uncovers PNL’s TikTok Campaign Promoting Călin Georgescu

Liberal Firm Plans Legal Action Over Alleged Bot Attack on Campaign.

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This refers to the #BalanceAndIntegrity campaign conducted with influencers on TikTok, which a declassified CSAT document claims “is identical to the Brother for Brother campaign carried out by the Russian Federation in Ukraine,” launched by Russia just before the invasion.

Snoop.ro investigation media outlet has learned that the National Tax Authority Authority (ANAF) recently discovered that “the #BalanceAndIntegrity campaign on TikTok was funded with money from the National Liberal Party (PNL),” according to a confidential source familiar with the results of ANAF’s investigation.

This information was confirmed to Snoop through discussions and correspondence with the company hired by PNL, Kensington Communication, which developed the campaign. The company paid 130 influencers recruited via the FameUp platform but claims that “the version generated by Kensington Communication underwent some modifications that were neither made by our team nor requested by party representatives, to our knowledge.”

Kensington stated that “the hashtag initially chosen by our company was #balanceandseriousness, which was changed on the FameUp platform to #balanceandintegrity without our involvement.”

However, the entire #BalanceAndIntegrity campaign was reportedly designed for Călin Georgescu, according to a declassified CSAT document and an Expert Forum report.

The campaign gathered 2.4 million views, “with influencers describing Călin Georgescu in a copy-paste script without naming him but using characterizations he himself promotes,” Expert Forum stated.

Additionally, a Snoop analysis, based on the brief sent to the newsroom by the company hired by PNL, revealed that the influencers followed the instructions predetermined by PNL. The same platform was used to execute a TikTok campaign for the book authored by PNL’s then-president, Nicolae Ciucă.

130 influencers co-opted by Kensington Communication, a company hired by the PNL and which used the FameUp platform, launched in November 2024, before the presidential elections, a campaign called #EchilibrușiVerticalitate. The influencers received a script and transmitted to the public in a video, qualities of a future president, without naming him. However, some influencers wrote in the comments of the video: “Călin Georgescu”.
The secret service of the Ministry of Interior submitted a note to the CSAT in which it claims to have analyzed the #EchilibrușiVerticalitate campaign, which was presented to the public as a “campaign aimed at raising awareness about the importance of voting.” In reality, claims the document declassified by the CSAT on December 5, the #EchilibrușiVerticalitate campaign was made for Călin Georgescu.
“The initiators presented to the individuals involved methods of avoiding detection of content elements that do not comply with the policies of the TikTok platform,” the CSAT document notes. On Friday, December 20, following Snoop’s questions, the Kensington firm, hired by the Liberals, admitted that this campaign was paid for by the PNL, but claims that it was “a series of briefs, intended for public awareness campaigns.” Kensington is owned by Răzvan Săndulescu and Cătălin Dumitru.

The CSAT document did not mention the name of the company, nor the fact that this TikTok campaign was paid for by the PNL. Snoop came into possession of this information through another means.
In recent days, at the request of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), the Romanian Tax Authority (ANAF) has investigated the financing of several social media promotion actions in the electoral campaign for the presidential elections. The promotion took place in November, a few weeks before the elections. The campaigns were not marked as political advertising. One of the campaigns whose funding was requested by ANAF was called #EchilibrușiVerticalitate. The tax authority heard the people involved, from companies and individuals. It investigated the financial flows. ANAF inspectors found out that the money for “Echilibru și Verticalitate” came from the PNL, more precisely from the company Kensington Communication, which provides political marketing services, but also online campaigns for liberals.
“The ANAF investigation ended a few days ago and the answer will soon be sent to AEP,” a specialist who is aware of ANAF’s conclusions told Snoop. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and the magnitude of the findings, the source chose to remain confidential. The specialist confirmed that “it is a shock to everyone that public money provided by taxpayers for the PNL was used to promote another candidate.”
Liberal Firm Plans Legal Action for Bot Attacks on PNL Campaign
On Saturday morning, the company hired to run the PNL campaign on TikTok sent another reaction to Snoop, after the investigative website revealed that the National Liberal Party’s money was used to pay for a large campaign on TikTok, a campaign that a CSAT document says was made for Călin Georgescu. The campaign financed by the PNL, with all three hashtags # #prezidentiale2024, #equilibrisiverticalitate and #unliderpotrivitpentrummine is the one that a classified CSAT document, drawn up by the Interior Ministry secret service, states supported Călin Georgescu. This campaign claimed to be “raising awareness about the importance of voting”, but, in reality, the CSAT document claims, it was one to promote Călin Georgescu. ANAF discovered that the campaign’s financing came through the Kensington company, with PNL as a client. And Kensington hired influencers through the Fame Up platform.
On Saturday, Kensington sent another response to Snoop.Kensington Communication will file a criminal complaint so that the competent authorities can investigate the hijacking, bot attack and/or cloning of the campaign carried out by Kensington, at the behest of the PNL, carried out through the Fame Up Platform, in favor of an extremist candidate,” the firm hired by the PNL for the investigation site said.
In an initial response, Kensington said that it had, in fact, carried out “awareness campaigns.” All briefs provided to FameUp were made for a campaign to combat extremism and encourage Euro-Atlantic values,” the company said of the instructions sent to influencers on the platform where TikTok content creators can be paid to promote certain messages.
“If the campaign was cloned or hijacked in favor of one candidate or another, we ask the competent authorities to verify and take the necessary legal measures,” the company said in a statement.
The company also wanted to clarify that “it did not carry out and we were not asked to carry out any campaign for Călin Georgescu.” Now, Kensington has also announced that it has filed a criminal complaint “so that the competent authorities can investigate the hijacking, bot attack and/or cloning of the campaign carried out by Kensington, at the behest of the PNL, carried out through the Fame Up Platform, in favor of an extremist candidate,” the company said.
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