【Text/Observer Network Zhou Yibo】
According to the Wall Street Journal, on March 8, local time, TikTok announced the launch of the "Project Clover", that is, three new data centers in Ireland and Norway, storing the data of 150 million European users in Europe every month.
According to the plan, TikTok will invest 1.2 billion euros (about 8.813 billion yuan) in these three data centers every year, and European user data currently stored elsewhere will also be gradually transferred to these new data centers.
TikTok has briefed British politicians on the plan this week and is trying to further promote it to policymakers in the European Union, France and the Netherlands. At present, the European Union has announced the ban on Tiktok on its official equipment, citing "security concerns", and the Netherlands is considering whether to follow up with a similar ban.
The "Clover Project" was reportedly announced by Theo Bertram, TikTok's vice president for European government relations. He said that 150 million users in Europe use TikTok every month, which puts the company on a significant responsibility to build trust by keeping user data safe and private.
According to Bertram, TikTok currently plans to open two data centers in Ireland in a few weeks and a third in Norway later this year.
"We will start storing TikTok user data locally in Europe starting this year, and the migration (of previously stored data) will continue until 2024." "Once operational, the total annual investment in the three data centers will reach €1.2 billion," Bertram said. ”
In addition, TikTok plans to eventually announce a European partner that will oversee how it handles data in Europe. However, Bertram said that the cooperation is still under discussion, and specific partners will be announced in due course.
TikTok also noted that the Shamrock Project was launched before many countries, including the United States, the European Union and Canada, banned government employees from using the app on work devices.
In announcing the TikTok ban on February 23, the European Commission called it a temporary move "to protect the (EU) Commission's data and improve cybersecurity."
In response, a TikTok spokesperson said the ban was "wrong" and based on a "fundamental misunderstanding" of social media, and that TikTok had "contacted the European Commission to clarify the facts and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million users who visit TikTok each month across the EU."
Tech mentioned that on February 17 this year, TikTok announced that it has 125 million monthly active users in the European Union, and more than 150 million monthly active users across the European region, including the United Kingdom and Switzerland. TikTok said on its website that it is working to comply with EU regulations and plans to build two new data centers in Europe to protect user data.
The Wall Street Journal analyzed that TikTok's "Clover Project" actually borrowed from its "Project Texas" launched in the United States, which cost 1.5 billion US dollars (about 10.453 billion yuan) to store data of American users on the systems of Oracle based in Austin, Texas.
In January, TikTok spokesman Brooke Obervet said in a statement: "Our team in Washington is focused on educating lawmakers about our company and our services, which are loved by millions of Americans and are creating economic opportunities for small businesses and individual creators." ”
On February 27, the White House has asked government agencies to ensure TikTok is disabled on their federal equipment and systems within 30 days, Reuters exclusively reported. Previously, more than half of the states in the United States had announced similar bans.
On February 28, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a regular press conference that the United States, as the world's largest power, is too unconfident to be so afraid of an app that young people like. "We resolutely oppose the wrong practice of the US side generalizing the concept of national security, abusing national power, and unreasonably suppressing enterprises of other countries." The U.S. government should earnestly respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop unreasonable suppression of relevant enterprises, and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for enterprises from all countries to invest and operate in the United States. ”
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