Visiting The European Union Headquarters, TikTok Affirms Commitment To Protection Of Children's Data And Safety

JAKARTA - TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi▁hukum on a visit to Brussels on Tuesday January 10 tried to convince the European Union that the app would respect increasingly strict technology rules and commitments to child privacy and safety.

The short video app, which is owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, over the past three years has sought to counter US concerns about whether citizens' personal data is accessible and content is manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party or other entities under Beijing's influence.

Pressure on the company increased after its confession last month that some of its employees incorrectly accessed TikTok user data from two journalists to try to identify sources of information leakage to the media.

Compared to rivals Meta and Twitter, TikTok has a relatively low profile with regulators in the country's 27 bloc.

But that can change because of strict technology rules to curb the power of Big Tech and require online platforms to do more to monitor the internet so that illegal content goes into effect in the coming months.

A series of Chew meetings in Brussels began with EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

"The purpose of the meeting with TikTok is to review how the company is preparing to fulfill its obligations under European Commission regulations, namely the Digital Service Act (DSA) and perhaps under the Digital Markets Act (DMA)," Vestager said in a statement.

"At the meeting, the parties also discussed the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and issues of privacy and the obligation to transfer data by referring to recent press reports on aggressive data collection and surveillance in the US," he said.

Commissioner of Value and Transparency Vera Jourova expressed her concern tolaws, including protection of European people's personal data, child safety, and the spread of Russian disinformation on the TikTok platform, as well as transparency of political advertising.

"I rely on TikTok to fully implement its commitment to work harder in respecting EU law and regain the trust of European regulators," he said in a statement after the meeting.

EU chief justice Didier Reynders told lawmakers that TikTok could do more to remove hateful content on its platform. Tiktok said it was committed to transparently complying with EU rules.

"This is a top priority for us to be ready to face this," TikTok vice president said of public policy, Europe, Theo