Draft law on limiting the propagation via very large online platforms of illegal content that incites hatred or manipulates on major issues of national interest through the malicious use of technology with the aim of misleading public opinion

On 5 March 2025, the draft law on limiting the propagation via very large online platforms of illegal content that incites hatred or manipulates on major issues of national interest through the malicious use of technology with the aim of misleading public opinion was submitted for debate to the Romanian Senate.

Key points:      

• For user accounts with a declared activity or location in Romania, social network providers are obliged to adapt their content propagation algorithms so that potentially harmful content is not sent via their online platforms to more than 150 users.
• For the type of potentially harmful content associated with user accounts with a declared activity or location in Romania, social network providers are prohibited from undertaking any promotional activity.
• For user accounts with a declared activity or location in Romania, social network providers are obliged to adapt their content propagation algorithms so that illegal content is removed within 15 minutes of publication, a quarantine period during which the platform’s algorithms analyse and classify the type of content.
• Potentially harmful content means any content that incites hatred and violence, dangerously misinforms, manipulates information or misleads on major issues of national interest.

Source: Draft law submitted for debate to the Romanian Senate under no. B61/2025