EU plans new steps to combat threats from Chinese tech, says European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager

The European Union should adopt “a broad, legally based approach” beyond current bans and investigations against risks posed by TikTok, the bloc’s digital chief said on Friday.

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice-president, said the EU was considering an outbound investment screening mechanism that would target China, and that it would introduce a collective response to risks from Beijing’s malign use of technology.

TikTok, the popular short-form video app, is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

In February, the European Commission and the EU Council banned TikTok from staff phones, after the US federal government and more than two dozen states prohibited government employees from using the app on official work devices. Canada, Belgium and Britain have taken similar actions.

The EU has confirmed investigations into TikTok’s data transfer to China and its advertising aimed at children. “That is really not enough,” Vestager told an event at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.