TikTok Sent Europeans’ Personal Data to China, Hiding Transfers From Users, EU Regulators Say

Chinese-owned video app has long drawn Western scrutiny over its possible ties to CCP

TikTok must pay a €530 million ($600 million) fine after Irish regulators said Friday that the Chinese-owned video-sharing app illegally sent European users’ data to China.

TikTok, whose EU headquarters is in Ireland, violated the 27-nation bloc’s data protection rules by transferring personal data of European users to China without proper safeguards, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced following a four-year investigation. The regulators also found that between 2020 and 2022, TikTok failed to disclose to users that Chinese staffers could access user data, Politico reported.

The fine comes as TikTok has long faced scrutiny over its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. President Donald Trump has voiced national security concerns, though he has extended the deadline until June 19 for TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. If TikTok still does not divest, it will face a total ban in the United States.

While TikTok has for years denied storing European or American user data on servers in China, the platform admitted in April that it had in fact stored “limited [European] user data” in the Communist country. The Irish regulators said they are taking the revelation “very seriously” and are weighing “what further regulatory action may be warranted,” according to Politico.

The penalty includes €485 million for the unlawful data transfers and €45 million for a lack of transparency, making it the third-largest fine under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, Politico reported. TikTok has six months to bring its data handling into compliance or suspend all transfers to China, the regulators said.

“TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of [European] users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.

TikTok said it strongly contests the Irish commission’s findings and plans to appeal.