TikTok boss meets EU officials as Western scrutiny intensifies
- CEO Shou Zi Chew took part in discussions on concerns ranging from child safety to investigations into user data flowing to China
- The Chinese-owned social media app faces bans in some US states, and is also under investigation by EU data protection watchdogs in Ireland
TikTok’s CEO met European Union officials on Tuesday about strict new digital regulations in the 27-nation bloc as the Chinese-owned social media app faces growing scrutiny from Western authorities over data privacy, cybersecurity and misinformation.
In meetings in Brussels, Shou Zi Chew and four officials from the EU’s executive Commission discussed concerns ranging from child safety to investigations into user data flowing to China, according to European readouts from two of the meetings and tweets from a third.
TikTok is wildly popular with young people but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push pro-China narratives or misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
US states including Kansas, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Virginia have moved to ban the video-sharing app from state-issued devices for government workers, and it also would be prohibited from most US government devices under a congressional spending bill.
Fears were stoked by news reports last year that a China-based team improperly accessed data of US TikTok users, including two journalists, as part of a covert surveillance programme to ferret out the source of leaks to the press.