Kensington Communication, the company that carried out the TikTok campaigns for PNL, claims that it has not conducted and has not been asked to conduct any campaign for Călin Georgescu.
The company specifies that the information it provided regarding the awareness campaigns carried out for PNL has been misinterpreted.
"Kensington Communication notes with surprise the completely erroneous interpretation of the information it provided transparently and promptly regarding the awareness campaigns carried out for PNL.
All briefs provided to FameUp were made for a campaign to combat extremism and encourage Euro-Atlantic values. We emphasize that Kensington Communication has not conducted and has not been asked to conduct any campaign for Călin Georgescu," the company said in a statement.
At the same time, Kensington Communication emphasizes that it has had no relationship with TikTok influencers.
"Kensington Communication has not chosen and has not had any relationship with influencers on the promotion platform. The hashtag proposed by Kensington Communication was #balanceandsincerity.
Kensington Communication did not use the hashtag #balanceandverticality. If the campaign has been cloned or diverted in favor of one candidate or another, we ask the competent authorities to verify and take the necessary legal measures," the company emphasizes.
The company will file a criminal complaint
Kensington Communication also announced that it will file a criminal complaint for judicial authorities to investigate the possible diversion of its campaign in favor of an extremist candidate.
"Kensington Communication will file a criminal complaint for the competent authorities to investigate the diversion, attack with bots, and/or cloning of the campaign carried out by Kensington, at the request of PNL, conducted through the Fame Up Platform, in favor of an extremist candidate," the company stated.
The company told Snoop that "the form generated by Kensington Communication underwent some modifications, which do not belong to our team and we have no knowledge that they were requested by party representatives."
Kensington also stated that the company's chosen hashtag was #balanceandsincerity, which was changed on the FameUp platform without our involvement to #balanceandverticality.
The clarifications come after journalists from Snoop.ro wrote that ANAF discovered in recent days that a TikTok campaign paid for by the National Liberal Party actually promoted Călin Georgescu, according to a confidential source familiar with the results of the tax investigation.
It concerns the #BalanceandVerticality campaign, created with influencers on TikTok, about which a declassified document from the CSAT states that "it is identical to the Brother for Brother campaign conducted by the Russian Federation in Ukraine," carried out by Moscow just before the invasion of Ukraine, as reported by Snoop.ro.
Here are the main pieces of information obtained by journalists:
- The company paid 130 influencers recruited on the FameUp platform, but claims that "the form generated by Kensington Communication underwent some modifications, which do not belong to our team and we have no knowledge that they were requested by party representatives."
- Kensington says its campaign was altered: "The hashtag chosen by our company was #balanceandsincerity, which was changed on the FameUp platform without our involvement to #balanceandverticality."
- The #BalanceandVerticality campaign, in its entirety, was created for Călin Georgescu, as stated in a declassified CSAT document and a report by Expert Forum.
- The campaign garnered 2.4 million views, and "influencers describe Călin Georgescu according to a copy-paste script, without naming him, but using the characterizations he himself makes," according to Expert Forum.
- Moreover, an analysis by Snoop, conducted on the brief sent to the editorial office by the firm hired by the liberals, shows that influencers adhered to the pre-established guidelines by PNL.
- The same platform was used for a TikTok campaign for the book of the then PNL president, Nicolae Ciucă.