TikTok to build new European data centers amid privacy concerns.
Key Takeaways:
TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, has come under scrutiny from EU officials for failing to address data, copyright, and harmful content-related issues.
To comply with European Union (EU) rules, TikTok has increased staff working on compliance and promised to store the data of European users in Ireland.
The EU is taking steps to limit the influence of large technology firms through the Digital Services Act (DSA). This law requires platforms to take down harmful or illegal content or face severe penalties such as high fines or being banned.
TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was told by EU commissioner Thierry Breton that the company must take greater responsibility when dealing with younger audiences and that it is unacceptable for users to have easy access to harmful content.
To address growing concerns over data privacy for its users in the West, TikTok has announced plans to build two more European data centers.
According to Rich Waterworth, the general manager for TikTok’s European operations, the company is currently discussing plans to establish a third data center in Europe, but they haven’t yet decided on a specific location.
Data for European TikTok users will be moved to the new centers beginning this year.
The EU has warned TikTok’s CEO that the company must comply with the bloc’s new digital rules, including the Digital Services Act, which requires online platforms and tech companies with over 45 million users to take additional steps to remove illegal content and disinformation or face potential fines amounting to billions of euros.
TikTok is popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised concerns that Beijing could use the platform to collect data on Western users or spread pro-China narratives and misinformation.
In 2020, TikTok admitted that some of its staff in China had access to the data of European users.
Although TikTok denies having any ties to the Chinese government, the US government has prohibited federal employees from using the app on their devices, and some politicians are pushing for a complete ban on the platform.
According to TikTok, it currently has 125 million monthly active users in the European Union, which means it will face additional scrutiny under the new regulations that will come into effect later this year.
The platform has a total of 150 million users, including those from non-EU countries such as the UK and Switzerland. Google, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, and Instagram will also face stricter scrutiny from the EU based on their monthly user numbers.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has 255 million active users every month, whereas Twitter has 100.9 million users, and Apple’s iOS App Store has over 45 million users. Google’s Search service has 332 million signed-in users, while YouTube has 401.7 million signed-in users.
