TikTok makes fresh push to convince regulators it protects data

“The Chinese government has never asked us for data and if they would, we would refuse to do so,” Theo Bertram, TikTok’s European policy chief, told reporters.

TikTok wants to convince European governments that it is an industry leader in data protection, rather than a Chinese-owned app that warrants the wave of bans across the continent.

The company outlined plans on Wednesday to build three European data centers, one of which in Dublin, to store information on TikTok’s 150 million users in the region locally with the help of an independent third company that will oversee data access controls. Once operational, the data centers will cost the company €1.2bn ($1.3bn) annually.