Monitoring Desk
BRUSSELS: TikTok started a new effort on Wednesday to assuage European leaders’ worries over data security as Western governments consider more bans on the video-sharing app.
The initiative came as the Czech cyber watchdog released its own warning, describing the Chinese-owned app as a security threat.
Western powers, including the United States and European Union, have taken a tough approach to TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
They are worried that China could access sensitive user data from around the world.
TikTok executives said in a statement that the company was working with a third-party European security company to check and oversee how it handles European users’ data, which will be stored at 3 centers in Norway and Dublin from 2023 onwards.
The social media platform insisted this project would also decrease its own employees’ access to the data of users.
TikTok refuses to name partner
TikTok has refused to name the partner, but the project is worth $1.3 billion and began 6 months ago, TikTok’s vice president of European public policy Theo Bertram told reporters in an online briefing.
The company already has a similar agreement in the US with Silicon Valley giant Oracle to store US users’ data in the country.
As the company brings a new charm offensive to convince lawmakers there is nothing to concern over, TikTok’s general counsel Erich Andersen is visiting Europe this week.
He held meetings with policymakers in London and Brussels. Bertram said Andersen would also meet officials in The Hague and Paris.
The EU’s governing institutions told crews in recent weeks to purge TikTok from laptops and smartphones used for work purposes.
US legislators are working on a bill that would make it easier to ban TikTok.
