Persons who identify - both during the electoral campaign and on the eve of the election day - non-compliant online political advertising materials   posted on Very Large Online Platforms can submit a complaint to the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC). If the complaint is well-founded, the BEC issues a decision to act against illegal content, transmitted to Very Large Online Platforms by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP). Platforms have a 5-hour deadline to remove non-compliant advertising material. The electoral campaign takes place between 04 April – 03 May, 07:00 AM.

As the Digital Services Coordinator of Romania, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), has launched a website section where all the relevant information can be found. This section also includes the Permanent Electoral Authority`s guide on preventing and countering voter disinformation, as well as information on how to report potentially illegal content on Very Large Online Platforms.

Mechanism for solving complaints concerning online electoral campaign

Persons who identify - both during the electoral campaign and on the eve of the election day - non-compliant online political advertising materials can file a complaint using the model provided by the Electoral Central Bureau, available here.

If the non-compliant online political advertising materials are hosted on a Very Large Online Platform, the complaint must be submitted to BEC.

Complaints regarding the non-compliant political advertising materials hosted on other online platforms than VLOPs, should be send to the county electoral bureau, district electoral bureaus for the municipality of Bucharest or the Electoral Bureau no. 48 for the polling stations abroad, as applicable.

The Central Electoral Bureau, the county electoral bureaus, the district electoral bureaus and the electoral bureau from the polling stations abroad have the status of relevant authorities, according to Emergency Ordinance no. 1/2025 on measures for organising and conducting the 2025 Romanian presidential elections and partial local elections.

If the reported content has been identified as illegal and depending on the type of online platform, the relevant authority will issue a decision for solving the complaint.

The decision to act against illegal content shall be communicated immediately to the Permanent Electoral Authority. The AEP shall forward the decision to the platforms that have to remove the advertising material in question.

The decisions of the Central Electoral Bureau may be appealed to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, within 48 hours from their publication on the Central Electoral Bureau website.

The decisions are also made public by issuing a press release and by displaying them in a visible place at the headquarters of the issuing electoral bureau and on its website.

Digital Services Act

The DSA does not empower DSCs to rule on the legality or veracity of online content but it puts in place due diligence mechanisms for online platforms to protect fundamental rights. Therefore, the DSA envisages that online platforms manage users’ content in a diligent, consistent, transparent and lawful manner – and especially observing the fundamental right to freedom of expression and of information – rather than aiming to achieve excessive moderation of online content.

To protect freedom of expression, DSA obliges online platforms to: 

• clearly explain how they moderate content in their terms and conditions and apply these rules consistently and fairly;
• provide users with detailed explanations of why their content or account has been restricted or removed;
• create internal complaint resolution systems that allow users to appeal moderation decisions directly to the online platform provider.

ANCOM is the national Digital Services Coordinator, being responsible for supervising the enforcement of the DSA in Romania.

As a Digital Services Coordinator, ANCOM is responsible for overseeing the compliance of intermediary service providers - established in Romania or who have a designated legal representative on Romanian territory - with the obligations laid down in the Digital Services Act.

It should be clearly understood that ANCOM`s mandate does not, in any way, extend to content moderation. This is the very reason why complaints regarding illegal content are not resolved by ANCOM, but by the relevant authorities, in other words those authorities with supervisory and control attributions in the respective field. Public institutions or authorities with attributions regarding the supervision of a certain sector or field of activity in the offline environment, also have competences in the online environment, according to the DSA.

ANCOM only evaluates illegal content specifically in situations where the Authority is legally designated as the relevant authority (e.g. ANCOM has the role of supervisory and control authority as regards placing radio equipment on the market or as regards electromagnetic compatibility).

For the May 2025 presidential elections, ANCOM, along with the Permanent Electoral Authority, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Audiovisual Council, the National Directorate of Cyber Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is part of the auxiliary technical staff of the Central Electoral Bureau.