Tiktok is in the spotlight again, but this time in Europe. The social network’s chief executive met with a number of European Commission politicians on Tuesday to discuss growing criticism of the platform over privacy and surveillance.
Following the meeting, the Vice President of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, tweeted this:
“I am counting on #TikTok to fully implement its commitments to go one step further to respect EU law and win back the trust of European regulators. There can be no doubt that user data in Europe is safe and not exposed. to illegal access by authorities of third countries.”
The meeting comes after months of political pressure, especially from the United States, where some US lawmakers have come to refer to the app as “digital fentanyl.”
TikTok is hugely popular with young people, but being owned by a Chinese company has raised fears that Beijing could spy on users or promote pro-China narratives or create misinformation.
Recent reports have shown that TikTok employees in China used private data to track the movements of two Western journalists.
In Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron has been highly critical of Tiktok, calling it “deceptively innocent” and a cause of “addiction” among users, as well as being, according to Macron, a source of Russian disinformation.
Although no EU country has banned TikTok, politicians in Switzerland have called for its ban on all government devices earlier this month. In Germany it is a topic that legislators also debate.
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