After a first European data center, TikTok will use two more on European soil in an attempt to address EU data concerns.
Chinese firm TikTok is hugely popular in Europe with over 150 million monthly users. But the fact that it is a Chinese company, for which it is not always clear where your data is stored outside the EU and of which it is not known by whom it is viewed, is a very sensitive subject. It is partly for this reason that TikTok has already entered into a collaboration with Oracle in the United States to control the data and the algorithm locally.
For Europe, TikTok is now talking regarding two data centers. Previously, it had already announced a first center in Ireland, which is currently in a ‘very advanced stage’. There will now be a second in Ireland too, erected by an external service provider, as well as a third elsewhere ‘in Europe’.
TikTok says European user data will be transferred to local data centers in the coming months until 2024.
These measures taken by TikTok should earn the company more confidence from Europe. The latter already imposes fairly strict rules on content moderation anyway through the Digital Services Act (DSA). But there are still questions regarding who can view this data. Late last year, TikTok owner ByteDance once more admitted that collaborators had used TikTok data to track down journalists.
Chinese firm TikTok is hugely popular in Europe with over 150 million monthly users. But the fact that it is a Chinese company, for which it is not always clear where your data is stored outside the EU and of which it is not known by whom it is viewed, is a very sensitive subject. It is partly for this reason that TikTok has already entered into a collaboration with Oracle in the United States to control the data and the algorithm locally. For Europe, TikTok is now talking regarding two data centers. Previously, it had already announced a first center in Ireland, which is currently in a ‘very advanced stage’. There will now be a second in Ireland too, erected by an external service provider, along with a third elsewhere ‘in Europe’. TikTok says European user data will be moved to local data centers within months of come and this, until 2024. These measures taken by TikTok should earn the company more confidence from Europe. The latter already imposes fairly strict rules on content moderation anyway through the Digital Services Act (DSA). But there are still questions regarding who can view this data. Late last year, TikTok owner ByteDance once more admitted that collaborators had used TikTok data to track down journalists.
