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Amid tensions with Trump administration, TikTok to set up European data centre in Ireland

WION Web Team
WorldUpdated: Aug 06, 2020, 05:06 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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TikTok expects the Ireland data centre to be operational by 2022.

Amid tensions with the US government, TikTok announced today that it will open its first data centre in Europe in Ireland valued at $498 million.

TikTok expects the centre to be operational by 2022. Roland Cloutier, TikTok's chief global information security officer, said that the move "will create hundreds of new jobs and play a key role in further strengthening the safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data."

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The announcement comes as US President Trump threatened to ban the Chinese firm unless its US operations is sold to a US company setting a September 15 deadline. The Trump administration has alleged that TikTok is a national security risk as it could share personal data of Americans with Chinese intelligence services.

The video-sharing app which has one billion users worldwide has vehemently denied the allegation set forth by the US government. US tech giant Microsoft is reportedly in talks with TikTok's parent company ByteDance to buy the China-based social media app's US operations.

Cloutier while sharing the Ireland move, said that "when our data centre is operational, European user data will be stored in this new location" while adding that "Ireland already plays a key role in our rapidly expanding European operations."

Cloutier said that the company was continuing to grow its "data protection and privacy teams". 

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that Trump government wants to ban untrusted Chinese apps from the app stores of US mobile carriers and phone makers.

"With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok, WeChat, and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP content censorship," Pompeo said.