TikTok follow EU rules: As the leaders of the EU demanded stronger efforts from the company, the social media site TikTok, known for its short videos of jokes and dances, claimed Friday that it was making enormous efforts to comply with the standards.
TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, is already the target of ban requests in the US due to its ties to Beijing and is currently the subject of intense inquiry in the EU.
Top authorities from the bloc have charged the platform with ignoring issues with data, copyright, and access to harmful content.
In a statement, TikTok announced that it has increased the number of people working on compliance and that it would host European users’ data in Ireland.
A slew of measures are being pushed through by the EU to limit the influence of big IT.
In September, the Digital Services Act (DSA) will take effect, and it will require platforms to delete harmful or unlawful information at the risk of steep fines or even outright prohibition.
According to a readout provided by the EU, EU commissioner Thierry Breton informed TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a teleconference last month that “with younger audiences comes greater responsibility.”
“It is unacceptable that users can access hazardous and occasionally even life-threatening content in a matter of seconds behind what appear to be entertaining and innocent features.”
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The company, which claimed to employ more than 5,000 people in Europe, made a commitment to keep removing damaging content and misinformation as well as to be transparent about any measures.
Last year, TikTok acknowledged that some employees in China had access to the data of customers from Europe.
ByteDance workers admitted to using TikTok data to track journalists and locate the source of media leaks.
The business disputes any access or control by the Chinese government.
However, US authorities have prohibited the software from being use on federal government computers and lawmakers want to completely outlaw the platform.
