After TikTok recently announced that it had reached 150 million monthly active users in Europe (an increase of around 50 million since 2020) the Chinese social network revealed plans to open European data centres and invest to comply with EU rules against disinformation.
"We are aware that it is essential that we continue to invest in Europe to support this growing community," TikTok said in a statement, adding that it wants to "ensure the security" of its European users' data by committing to "restrict its employees' access" to this data, "minimize data flows outside Europe and store the data of its European users in European data centres."
TikTok is under pressure to adhere to the Digital Services Act (DSA), the new EU code of practice on disinformation, of which it is a signatory. The plans to expand its European teams are part of its plans to comply with the DSA, which will come into force later this year.
The DSA aims to curb misinformation and hateful content and will hold major platforms accountable for their algorithms, which determine what users see.
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In addition to opening a "European centre for transparency and accountability" in Dublin, TikTok is in the process of finalising a project for a second data centre in Ireland and is "in talks to establish a third European data centre".
"The migration of our European users' data will begin this year and will continue until 2024," said the group, which employs around 5000 people in Europe.
