New EU focus on TikTok: investigation into user data transfer to China

MILAN – New EU scrutiny on TikTok . The Irish regulator, which monitors data privacy in the European Union, has launched an investigation into the social media platform for transferring European users' personal data to servers in China.

TikTok was fined €530 million in May by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) for sending personal data to China, even though the Chinese social media giant insisted that such data was only accessible remotely. The DPC announced that it was informed by TikTok in April that "a limited amount of data from European Economic Area users had indeed been stored on servers in China," only to be deleted, contrary to evidence previously presented by the company.

The regulator said it had expressed "deep concern" in its previous investigation that "TikTok had provided inaccurate information." TikTok plans to appeal the May fine, the second-largest ever imposed by the DPC.