TikTok, the popular social network, is currently being investigated by the European Commission over the alleged transfer of citizens’ data to China. The investigators are attempting to determine whether the social network complies with the General Data Protection Regulation in practice, as confirmed by the president of the European Commission in a letter shared with the federal commissioner for communications.
The Investigations in this situation would focus on targeted advertising for children and the transfer of data from EU citizens to China. Brendan Carr, the federal communications commission, who received the following letter from Ursula von der Leyden, president of the European Commission, said TikTok’s data practices are subject to several ongoing investigations, particularly with regard to targeted advertising to minors and data transfers to China.
“TikTok’s data practices, including with regard to international data transfers, are subject to of several ongoing proceedings. This includes an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission into TikTok’s compliance with several GDPR requirements, including with respect to data transfers to China and handling of children’s data, and litigation before Dutch courts (particularly with regard to targeted advertising to minors and data transfers to China),” part of the letter read.
In the letter, the European Commission concluded that the information provided by TikTok appears to be untrue or misleading, including that TikTok does not track U.S. user locations. Therefore, the members of Congress are seeking answers from TikTok after determining that it made false or misleading statements to bipartisan Committee staff.
However, it should be noted that the issues about privacy and security on social networks have been prominent even in America. Particularly, the theory that the Chinese government uses the program developed by the Chinese firm “ByteDance” to gather user information or to carry out actions to manipulate an algorithm would have sparked numerous concerns. Carr would have declared that the platform ought to be outlawed in the United States of America for the same reason.
