Tech
TikTok Plans To Build 2 More Data Centers In Europe
(CTN NEWS) – The well-known Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok announced Friday that it is preparing to build two new data centers in Europe to calm growing worries about data privacy for its users in the West.
Authorities in Europe and the United States have criticized TikTok over worries that it may collect vast amounts of user data and transport it to China.
Rich Waterworth, the company’s general manager for European operations, wrote in a blog post that they are “in an advanced stage of finalizing a plan” for a second data center in Ireland with a third-party supplier.
There its first center was revealed last year.
TikTok is also discussing opening a third data center in Europe, though it has not yet decided on a site.
As our community has grown, Waterworth stated, “in terms of local data storage, we’re aiming to extend our European data storage capacity.”
This year, according to Waterworth, data for TikTok users in Europe will begin to be transferred to the new data centers.
Young people love TikTok, but because China owns it, there are concerns that Beijing might use it to gather information on Western users or spread false information and pro-China narratives.
ByteDance, a Chinese business that relocated its corporate headquarters to Singapore in 2020, owns TikTok.
CEO Shou Zi Chew received a warning from a senior EU official last month that the business would need to adhere to the 27-nation bloc’s stringent new digital regulations.
Online platforms and software firms with 45 million or more users are required under the Digital Services Act to take additional measures to remove illegal content and misinformation or risk facing fines that might total billions of dollars.
/ TikTok
According to a report from TikTok on Friday, the app has 125 million monthly active users in the EU, which put it over the line for more inspection under the proposed rules that will come into force later this year.
There are 150 million users of TikTok worldwide, including those from non-EU nations like Switzerland and Great Britain.
According to monthly user figures they submitted in time for a Friday deadline, Google, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, and Instagram will also be subject to the harsher EU inspection.
According to parent company Meta, Instagram has 250 million users, while Facebook has 255 million monthly active users. Including both signed-in users and those who did not, Twitter reported having 100.9 million users overall.
Apple provided no exact figures when claiming that the iOS App Store had more than 45 million users. According to Google, YouTube has 401.7 million signed-in users, compared to 332 million for Google Search.
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