VIDEO: The Chinese giant, TikTok faces strong criticism in the Czech Republic and the United States
TikTok will be received by the Minister Delegate for Digital Jean-Noël Barrot on Friday. The latter will discuss with Erich Andersen, general counsel of ByteDance, parent company of TikTok. On the program: “the company’s roadmap and commitments” as well as a “precise operational schedule” of the measures taken to protect user data.
TikTok is due to announce on Wednesday the opening of three data centres in Europe this year – two in Ireland, one in Norway – to store European user data, in response to suspicions of a transfer of such data to China. The group also announced a partnership with a European group responsible for controlling the processing of this data.
“TikTok will also have to demonstrate the full compliance of its project with European regulations, both in terms of compliance with the GDPR (data protection) and cybersecurity,” said the ministry. In terms of content, it must “show increased transparency on its algorithm of recommendations for users”.
“Potential threat to security”
This is the second time that the French minister will meet with world leaders from TikTok. He had met its CEO Shou Zi Chew in January. Erich Andersen has just met politicians in Brussels and London and is due to go to Amsterdam after Paris. Objective: to appease mistrust while several governments and institutions have banned the app on the professional phones of their civil servants.
The European Commission and Parliament have banned TikTok from their employees’ devices, as has the Danish parliament. On Wednesday, the Czech Cybersecurity Agency (NUKIB) warned that the social network poses a “threat” to security if installed on devices with access to sensitive data.
“The bureau is concerned about a potential security threat arising from the use of TikTok, due to the amount of user data collected by the app and how that data is handled.” In the United States, where a law has decided to ban TikTok from the devices of public officials, a bill supported by the White House could lead to a total ban on the application.
