Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, confirms that TikTok is under multiple investigations. The reasons? The treatment that the social network applies to users’ data; specifically for the transfer of European users’ information to China and advertising aimed at minors. The ultimate goal is to ensure that TikTok works in accordance with the requirements of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
“TikTok’s data practices, including with respect to international data transfers, are the subject of several ongoing proceedings,” comments Ursula von der Leyen in a letter shared by Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr.
“This includes an investigation by the Irish [Data Protection Commission] into TikTok’s compliance with various GDPR requirements, including with regard to data transfers to China and the processing of minors’ data, and litigation before the Dutch courts (in particular in relation to targeted advertising with regard to minors and data transfers to China).
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
In this letter, Von der Leyen also commented on media concerns about the possibility of Chinese authorities gaining access to EU citizens’ TikTok data. This is not the first time that European authorities have had their eye on TikTok. In fact, earlier this year, a complaint accused the app of violating the territory’s consumer rules.
The European Union is not alone in targeting TikTok. On the other side of the Atlantic, the social network faced a Forbes report claiming that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, could use the app’s location data to monitor the location of U.S. citizens.
TikTok came to its own defense shortly thereafter, assuring that ByteDance had no intention of tracking the location of U.S.-based users through the app. Forbes, for its part, stood by its words, assuring that “Not using GPS doesn’t mean that [ the ByteDance team] can’t use that [approximate] location to keep tabs on certain people.”
