Europe: TikTok plans two data centers in Europe

TikTok has announced its plans to build two more data centers in Europe. The company said this addition will support its growth and meet data residency requirements. Speaking about this expansion, Rich Waterworth, TikTok's general manager of operations in Europe, said: "We're continuing to deliver against the data governance strategy we set out for Europe last year, which includes further reducing employee access to European user data; minimizing data flows outside of Europe; and storing European user data locally." Adding: "Regarding local data storage, in line with the growth of our community, we're looking to expand our European data storage capacity." 

This announcement comes amid data center security concerns, rising regulatory pressure, and the social media app amassing more than 150 million users Europe-wide, pushing it over the threshold for additional scrutiny under the new data rules set to come in later in 2023. 

Further, in order to comply with new EU standards, TikTok, in accordance with the strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation, submitted its first baseline report, and published its Community Guidelines Enforcement Reports in December, and signed up to voluntary Codes on disinformation and hate speech and developed a platform research API.

Speaking about this, TikTok said: "We're proud to have played our part in the collaborative, co-regulatory process to draft the strengthened EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, and to be sharing our first baseline report under this new Code, building on our work as a signatory to the previous code."