TikTok Commits to Two New Data Centers in Europe

LONDON—TikTok said it planned to build two new data centers in Europe in addition to a previously announced one, as the Chinese-owned video-sharing app tries to address security concerns in Europe and the U.S.

TikTok, in announcing the data-center plans Friday, also disclosed it had 125 million monthly active users in the European Union. As part of the EU’s new Digital Services Act, the 27-country bloc had set Friday as the deadline for online platforms to report user totals. The biggest companies—defined as those with more than 45 million users—must meet additional requirements to reduce what the EU says is the risk of harm on their platforms.

TikTok said it has 150 million such users in all of Europe, when non-EU countries including the U.K. and Switzerland are included.

The company is trying to avoid in Europe the concerns that have dogged it in the U.S. Congress is considering banning the app amid worry that its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., could spy or influence users on behalf of Chinese authorities. TikTok leaders including Chief Executive

Shou Zi Chew

went to Brussels last month, telling EU leaders that they’d do more than legally required to comply with new EU rules.

TikTok has consistently said it wouldn’t act on behalf of Chinese authorities.

TikTok is at a crossroads, as U.S. concerns about its Chinese ownership grow. Some officials have explored the idea of forcing a sale to a U.S. company. WSJ explains the challenges of making that happen. Illustration: Preston Jessee

TikTok faces the threat of restrictions similar to those being proposed or enacted in the U.S., where some local governments have already limited its use on government-owned devices. The chairwoman of the U.K. Parliament’s foreign-affairs committee, for instance, has said people should delete the app from their phones. Some Dutch parliament members are proposing forbidding the use of TikTok on government-issued devices.

The company said Friday that in addition to a previously announced data center in Ireland, it was finalizing a deal to build another one in the country. It said it was also in talks to build a third data center in Europe, without disclosing a location. TikTok has said it stores global user data in Singapore and the U.S., but would begin migrating European data to its European sites this year.