The TikTok application is facing a wave of bans in different countries around the world. To avoid disappearing from the European market, it is investing massively, but this could be insufficient according to analysts.
The famous social network TikTok has been in the crosshairs of governments for some time now. The reason is the fear that the data collected, which passes through China, will be used to spy on different countries. In the United States, Montana has already banned TikTok under penalty of a $10,000 fine. Less radically, the application is banned on the smartphones of employees of government institutions: White HouseEuropean Commission and Parliament in the lead.
To limit the bleeding, TikTok has unveiled measures to comply with the legislation of the Old Continent. The objective is to reassure the authorities by showing that the company respects the GDPR in particular. In addition to changes to its internal functioning (possibility of report all content deemed illegalson who display videos without personalization…), it also involves investing massively in infrastructures based in Europe.
TikTok spends 1.2 billion euros on European data centers, insufficient according to analysts
For the modest sum of1.2 billion eurosTikTok launches construction of three data centers, two in Ireland and one in Denmark. The goal is for them to be operational by the end of 2024. Once up and running, this will mean that the data of the app’s 150 million European users will be under EU jurisdiction. There will even be a “transparency center” that regulators can visit to see how the service works.
Read also – TikTok could be banned in France from January 1, 2024, here’s why
Despite all this good will, some analysts believe that this will not be enough to avoid drastic sanctions for the firm. For Moritz Körner, German member of the European Parliament, “this is a step in the right direction, but it does not guarantee that European data […] will not ultimately be transferred to China.” Because that is the problem: the management of ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is based in China. She must therefore obey both European laws and Chinese laws.
Moritz Körner explains that in the end, “as long as there is [a] disagree […] on data protection between China and the EU, or at least a non-spying agreement between the EU and China”, TikTok’s approach is not sufficient. However, it is difficult to say today whether the fate of the application is already sealed. We will surely have to wait until at least the end of next year for Europe to decide on the subject, if it wishes to do so.
Source: Wired