Romania: Ceaușescu makes Tiktok comeback
The Romanian Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes (IICCMER) has published a report on how Tiktok is being flooded with pro-totalitarian, nostalgic and extremist videos. More than 200 such videos have ratcheted up some 130 million views, many of them idealising the former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu as a patriotic and authentic leader.
Chronic intellectual inertia
G4Media.ro is concerned:
“The ease with which young people (and not just them) can be manipulated on Tiktok reflects a chronic intellectual inertia, which is evident in all Pisa tests and is why Romania tops the ranking for functional illiteracy among the young (42 percent - it's no coincidence that the percentage is similar for those who believe that communism was acceptable). Functional illiterates graduate from school but have no idea what they're reading, or fail to understand the basic facts. ... Romania has nine million Tiktok users, the highest number per capita in the EU. And 90 percent of them are between 13 and 35 and did not live under communism.”
Conspiracy theories in play
The Romanian Service of Radio France Internationale sees democracy under threat:
“Ironically the messages on Tiktok are very popular among the Romanian diaspora, who are enjoying the freedoms of the EU to the full. And, of course, conspiracy theories also come into play here: for example, that Ceaușescu was removed because he had bold plans to turn Romania into a major power. In reality, of course, you couldn't even get bread at the baker's. All these messages are getting artificially amplified on Tiktok. ... With the aim of undermining trust in liberal democracy.”
Neither jeans nor bananas
Journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu wonders in republica.ro what it would be like if the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu were still in power today:
“In 1989 Ceaușescu had paid off all foreign debt by squeezing the Romanian people dry. His image was ruined. ... He would have been unable to borrow another cent. So where would the money have come from for all the motorways, planes and apartment blocks if Romania's autonomous economy had been completely disconnected from foreign investors? The billions that the EU invested in Romania would never have materialised. It wouldn't even have been able to import jeans or bananas. ... Tiktok, where all these manipulative lies are spreading, would never have existed.”