In France, the opacity of TikTok was pinned down by the digital regulator, Arcom, at the end of 2022. DADO RUVIC / REUTERS
With 150 million active users per month on the continent, the Chinese social network plans to open data centers there and invest to comply with the rules against misinformation.
TikTok now has 150 million monthly active users in Europe (out of 32 countries) and plans to open data centers there and invest to comply with EU rules against disinformation, the group announced on Friday. The Chinese social network claimed only 100 million active monthly users at the end of 2020.
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“We are aware that it is essential that we continue to invest in Europe to support this growing community“, Underlines in a press release Tiktok, currently under pressure from the EU to respect stricter rules on content and data. The social network popular with 4-18 year olds details its actions to apply the new EU code of good practice on disinformation, of which it is a signatory. Last week, it provided a report on its activities in 30 European countries. He also explains that he is expanding his European teams to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA) which will come into force from mid-2023.
The DSA aims to stem misinformation and hateful content and will hold major platforms to account on their algorithms, which determine what users see. In France, the opacity of TikTok was pinned down by the digital regulator, Arcom, at the end of 2022. TikTok also says it wants to “Ensure the securityof the data of its European users by committing torestrict employee access» to this data, «minimize data flows outside Europe and store the data of its European users in European data centers“. Points scrutinized by the EU.
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One billion monthly active users
In addition to the opening in Dublin of a “european transparency and accountability center“, he is in the process of finalizing a project for a second data center in Ireland and is “in talks to establish a third European data center“. “The data migration of our European users will start this year and will continue until 2024“, specifies the group, which employs 5000 people in Europe. His boss, Shou Zi Chew, had met several European commissioners in Brussels on January 10, who had urged him to comply with the rules for the fight against disinformation and for the protection of young people.
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TikTok is under investigation in Ireland over data transfers to China and the privacy of children. The social network claims more than a billion active monthly users worldwide. In particular 4-18 year olds who, according to several studies, spend an average of 1h30 a day there.
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