The head of TikTok, the Chinese social media giant facing US calls for a ban, was handed a series of polite compliance warnings by European Union commissioners who reined in the undiplomatic language they’ve recently aimed at Twitter Inc.’s owner Elon Musk.
(Bloomberg) — The head of TikTok, the Chinese social media giant facing US calls for a ban, was handed a series of polite compliance warnings by European Union commissioners who reined in the undiplomatic language they’ve recently aimed at Twitter Inc.’s owner Elon Musk.
While Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew was told to make improvements in areas such as privacy to regain the trust of Europeans, the bloc’s top policymakers said Tuesday they’d appreciated the company’s efforts to engage with regulators.
“I count on TikTok to fully execute its commitments to go the extra mile in respecting EU law and regaining trust of European regulators,” European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova said after a meeting with the chief. “There cannot be any doubt that data of users in Europe are safe and not exposed to illegal access from third-country authorities.”
TikTok has faced intense scrutiny in Europe over concerns that children’s data isn’t safe on the social media platform and could be slapped with hefty fines in separate probes in the UK and by its main EU data watchdog in Ireland. It’s also being probed for possible data protection violations following concerns that EU user data could be accessed by “maintenance and AI engineers in China.”
The TikTok CEO has responded with a charm offensive in meetings with four EU commissioners. These include Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who also cited “the recent press reporting on aggressive data harvesting and surveillance in the US,” according to a statement.
Both Vestager and Jourova discussed how TikTok is preparing to comply with upcoming content moderation rules, the Digital Services Act, which will go into effect this year. Non-compliance with the rules, which require companies to take down illegal content and produce risk assessments on harmful content, could result in fines as high as 6% of annual sales.
Elon Musk Gets EU Warning to Keep Putin Propaganda Off Twitter
Still, the EU’s treatment of TikTok has been less vocal — in public at least — than that of Twitter, which has been in turmoil since Musk’s $44 billion takeover. The space and electric car tycoon has attracted stinging criticism for gutting content moderation teams and also for urging staff that they should accept the firm’s new “hard core” approach or quit.
In the US, lawmakers last month voted to ban the use of TikTok on government devices, and some continue to debate the prospect of blacklisting the app nationwide. In the EU, TikTok caved and made some changes last year after getting an ultimatum from the EU commission to bring its practices in line with EU advertising ad consumer protection rules.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.