TikTok faces $600M fine for sharing EU user data with China

TikTok was fined $600 million by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission after a four-year probe found its data transfers to China put European users at risk of surveillance, violating EU rules under the General Data Protection Regulation.

The EU watchdog also criticized TikTok for lacking transparency about where user data was sent and failing to prove that access by Chinese staff complied with the bloc’s privacy standards.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, plans to appeal the decision. It argues that the ruling overlooks its recent data localization initiative, Project Clover, which includes three European data centers and independent oversight.

Not a first
In 2023, EU regulators fined TikTok hundreds of millions of dollars over violations related to child privacy.

In the US, TikTok remains under scrutiny due to its Chinese ownership. ByteDance is under a sell-or-ban order. In April, President Donald Trump extended the deadline by 75 days.