EU imposes heavy fine on TikTok

Brussels: The European Union has imposed a heavy fine on China's famous social media app TikTok.

According to international media reports, the European Union has imposed a heavy fine of €530 million, or $600 million, on TikTok for transferring the personal data of European users to China.

In this regard, the Irish Data Protection Commission says that during the investigation, the company was unable to explain under which laws the data was transferred to China, and that this move is against European Union laws.

Under the European Union's laws, the 'General Data Protection Regulation', European user data can only be transferred outside the bloc if the same level of protection measures are in place on the other side.

The Irish Data Protection Commission has asked TikTok to pay the fine and bring its data transfer rules in line with European Union laws within 6 months.

It is important to note that the Data Protection Commission of Ireland acts as the data privacy regulator for TikTok’s European users in 27 European countries.

TikTok, on the other hand, has decided to appeal the fine imposed by the Data Protection Commission of Ireland.

TikTok’s head of European public policy and government relations, Christine Green, says that TikTok has never received any request from Chinese authorities to transfer data of European users, nor has it ever been provided with data of European users.

She said that the company has taken very strict measures to protect its users’ data.

Christine Green added that the Data Protection Commission of Ireland failed to fully consider TikTok’s remarkable data security measures in its investigation.