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This is a very bad article as the cyberattacks did nothing and didn't interfere with the election. The relevant part here is how TikTok was used to push an unk

This is a very bad article as the cyberattacks did nothing and didn't interfere with the election. The relevant part here is how TikTok was used to push an unknown character from a nobody to getting 22% of the votes in the first round, all while no one was aware of this. The polls didn't show him among the favorites. More than that the campaign was so we'll targeted that only people likely to vote for him saw the TikTok content making everyone else completely unaware of his presence.

cryptoegorophy 2y ago
How is this a cyberattack? If it doesn’t fit the narrative then it is a cyber attack?
- willvarfar 2y ago
  It is a cyber attack if the popularity is not organic, but rather manipulated by state actors?
  - pphysch 2y ago
    So AIPAC is a cyberattack? Not trying to start a tangent, just trying to understand your argument.
    - hn_go_brrrrr 2y ago
      Is AIPAC a foreign agent (are they required to register with the US government as such)?
      - pphysch 2y ago
        De facto, yes. There is substantial evidence that AIPAC and the broader Israel lobby coordinates closely with a foreign government. However, due to their enormous influence, they have avoided de jure registering as such. By your logic, the Romanian dark horse can't possibly be a Russian op because they never officially registered as a Russian agent.
        hn_go_brrrrr 2y ago
        I was very careful in my wording: someone who is required to register by law may choose to not do so.
- cbg0 2y ago
  There were DDoS attacks targeting some state systems connected to the electoral process, that is factually correct, but it's not why the election was cancelled, that's because a candidate broke electoral law.
  - NVHacker 2y ago
    Link to where any judge said that ?
- doublerabbit 2y ago
  It's the new buzzword for any technological mishap.
- throw_pm23 2y ago
  He declared 0 campaign budget and he ran a campaign estimated at millions of $ in the last days before the election. Also the videos were not marked as campaign ads. These are illegal under Romanian law. The court took a courageous decision.
  - NVHacker 2y ago
    The big reveal documents show USD360k spent by a third party. There is no proof or claim that Georgescu did anything wrong.
ChumpGPT 2y ago
TikTok needs to be banned. It is a tool the Chinese are using very effectively and when paired with Russian efforts to undermine Western Democracies, it is creating mayhem in the systems we have grown to trust. There is an all-out war on the EU in an attempt to destroy the Union and drive out American relationships for China and Russia to take over quietly. Brussels is sleeping while the nightmare continues....
- ethbr1 2y ago
  By that metric, all social media should be subject to transparency et al. regulation. Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft's algorithms have similar reach. The real issue here is that afaik no country ever figured out a good way to regulation election speech in a democracy, past social norms and economic realities.
- logicchains 2y ago
  The reason people are voting for anti-EU candidates is that the "systems" have proving themselves completely untrustworthy. Western European liberal democracies have completely stopped delivering on the promise of increasing prosperity and instead resorted to clamping down and trying to censor anyone who criticises their failed economic and migration policies.
  - fakedang 2y ago
    I mean both of you aren't wrong. Brussels is sleeping and failing to deliver upon the European promise. I often think what the EU would have been, had they implemented a shorter austerity in the aftermath of '08, and hadn't succumbed to the migrants, choosing to enforce a strong and severe border regime. The social safety net and the sentiment for further integration would both have been much stronger. But of course, Merkel gotta Merkel and Germany gotta Germany. There should be a lot more resentment against Germany than there is currently.
    - ethbr1 2y ago
      The trap for Germany is that last I checked their demographics are shitty (age and birth rate). Consequently, they need immigration to maintain population growth. Unfortunately, not many folks understand how many orders of magnitude more difficult it is to maintain an economy and quality of life in a shrinking country.
VladStanimir 2y ago
The cyber attack was done against the institutions responsible for counting, collating and validating the election results. While we use paper ballots and stamps for the actual voting and hand count every vote, transmiting and centralizing the results is done using IT infrastructure. The cyber attack and the TikTok manipulation are 2 separate but related things.
- NVHacker 2y ago
  They recounted the votes and found no difference. Someone uses big words (like cyber attack) to create fear and justify their actions.
NVHacker 2y ago
He is well known, including in government circles, and was previously proposed for the prime minister role:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%83lin_Georgescu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%83lin_Georgescu Rather weird to claim that his over 2 million voters across the country and diaspora were because of TikTok.

cryptoegorophy 2y ago

How is this a cyberattack? If it doesn’t fit the narrative then it is a cyber attack?

willvarfar 2y ago
It is a cyber attack if the popularity is not organic, but rather manipulated by state actors?
- pphysch 2y ago
  So AIPAC is a cyberattack? Not trying to start a tangent, just trying to understand your argument.
  - hn_go_brrrrr 2y ago
    Is AIPAC a foreign agent (are they required to register with the US government as such)?
    - pphysch 2y ago
      De facto, yes. There is substantial evidence that AIPAC and the broader Israel lobby coordinates closely with a foreign government. However, due to their enormous influence, they have avoided de jure registering as such. By your logic, the Romanian dark horse can't possibly be a Russian op because they never officially registered as a Russian agent.
      - hn_go_brrrrr 2y ago
        I was very careful in my wording: someone who is required to register by law may choose to not do so.
cbg0 2y ago
There were DDoS attacks targeting some state systems connected to the electoral process, that is factually correct, but it's not why the election was cancelled, that's because a candidate broke electoral law.
- NVHacker 2y ago
  Link to where any judge said that ?
doublerabbit 2y ago
It's the new buzzword for any technological mishap.
throw_pm23 2y ago
He declared 0 campaign budget and he ran a campaign estimated at millions of $ in the last days before the election. Also the videos were not marked as campaign ads. These are illegal under Romanian law. The court took a courageous decision.
- NVHacker 2y ago
  The big reveal documents show USD360k spent by a third party. There is no proof or claim that Georgescu did anything wrong.

ChumpGPT 2y ago

TikTok needs to be banned. It is a tool the Chinese are using very effectively and when paired with Russian efforts to undermine Western Democracies, it is creating mayhem in the systems we have grown to trust. There is an all-out war on the EU in an attempt to destroy the Union and drive out American relationships for China and Russia to take over quietly. Brussels is sleeping while the nightmare continues....

ethbr1 2y ago
By that metric, all social media should be subject to transparency et al. regulation. Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft's algorithms have similar reach. The real issue here is that afaik no country ever figured out a good way to regulation election speech in a democracy, past social norms and economic realities.
logicchains 2y ago
The reason people are voting for anti-EU candidates is that the "systems" have proving themselves completely untrustworthy. Western European liberal democracies have completely stopped delivering on the promise of increasing prosperity and instead resorted to clamping down and trying to censor anyone who criticises their failed economic and migration policies.
- fakedang 2y ago
  I mean both of you aren't wrong. Brussels is sleeping and failing to deliver upon the European promise. I often think what the EU would have been, had they implemented a shorter austerity in the aftermath of '08, and hadn't succumbed to the migrants, choosing to enforce a strong and severe border regime. The social safety net and the sentiment for further integration would both have been much stronger. But of course, Merkel gotta Merkel and Germany gotta Germany. There should be a lot more resentment against Germany than there is currently.
  - ethbr1 2y ago
    The trap for Germany is that last I checked their demographics are shitty (age and birth rate). Consequently, they need immigration to maintain population growth. Unfortunately, not many folks understand how many orders of magnitude more difficult it is to maintain an economy and quality of life in a shrinking country.

VladStanimir 2y ago

The cyber attack was done against the institutions responsible for counting, collating and validating the election results. While we use paper ballots and stamps for the actual voting and hand count every vote, transmiting and centralizing the results is done using IT infrastructure. The cyber attack and the TikTok manipulation are 2 separate but related things.

NVHacker 2y ago
They recounted the votes and found no difference. Someone uses big words (like cyber attack) to create fear and justify their actions.

NVHacker 2y ago

He is well known, including in government circles, and was previously proposed for the prime minister role:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%83lin_Georgescu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%83lin_Georgescu Rather weird to claim that his over 2 million voters across the country and diaspora were because of TikTok.