MEPs vote to keep the pressure on over Romania's annulled election

BREAKING NEWS from Strasbourg: the European Parliament VOTES ON A REPORT inviting the European Commission to finalise its investigations into the context of the ELECTION ANNULMENT in Romania! The European Parliament welcomes the European Commission's completion of its investigation into platform X's breach of transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act, followed by the imposition of a €120 million fine, as well as the Commission's decision to open investigations into the integration of Grok AI into X and to expand its existing investigations into X's recommender systems. At the same time, it urges the Commission to accelerate the remaining investigations, including into Meta, particularly in light of preliminary findings on breaches of transparency and user-protection obligations, as well as reports pointing to persistent issues around misleading advertising and regulatory circumvention; it stresses the need for enforcement measures in cases of election interference, persistent algorithmic opacity, and the large-scale proliferation of fake accounts and bot networks that distort public discourse. It also calls on the Commission, in this context, to swiftly conclude its investigations into TikTok's compliance with the Digital Services Act in relation to foreign interference in Romania's 2024 presidential election — which revealed worrying possibilities for exploiting recommender systems and bot networks — as well as TikTok's obligation to mitigate systemic risks to democratic processes and ensure deterrence during electoral periods. The Parliament further takes note of the European Commission's preliminary assessment indicating that TikTok is in breach of the Digital Services Act because it is designed to foster addiction!