EU Investigation into TikTok: China Denies Any Involvement
China Denies Involvement in Illegal Data Storage Amid EU Investigation into TikTok
The Chinese government firmly rejected allegations on Friday regarding any involvement in illegal storage of personal data on servers within its territory, following the commencement of an investigation by the European Union into TikTok.
"The Chinese government places great importance on data privacy and security, and protects it in accordance with the law," stated Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to her, Beijing "has never required and will never require companies or individuals to illegally collect or store data."
"We hope that the European side will respect the market economy and fair competition and will provide a fair, just, and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from all countries," added Mao during a regular press briefing.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which acts on behalf of the European Union, opened an investigation against TikTok on Thursday regarding the storage of personal data of European users on Chinese servers, which could violate legislation.
The powerful video-sharing platform, boasting 1.5 billion members, is owned by the Chinese group ByteDance.
TikTok has been under scrutiny from Western governments for years, amid concerns about its ties to Beijing and the potential use of user data for espionage or propaganda purposes.
The DPC has already fined TikTok €530 million in early May for failing to provide adequate protection for the personal data of Europeans, which is accessible remotely from China but stored elsewhere.
During this investigation, TikTok acknowledged that some European data had been stored in China (and has since been deleted), not merely made accessible.
The company cited a technical issue and asserted that it had "never received a request" from Chinese authorities and had "never provided user data of European users" to them.
However, the DPC stated that TikTok had not been able to offer guarantees against potential access by Chinese authorities to this data due to its anti-terrorism and counter-espionage laws.
The aim of the new investigation "is to determine whether the social network has fulfilled its relevant obligations under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the context of the questioned transfers," explained the DPC on Thursday.
This body operates on behalf of the EU, as TikTok’s European headquarters, like many tech giants, is located in Ireland.
