Social media app TikTok is to get a new £375m EU data centre located in Ireland in the next 18-24 months, creating hundreds of new tech jobs.
The recent news that social media App TikTok could be banned in the US has caused a stir at its China-based owner, who have recently been in discussions with Microsoft to sell the app's US-based operations. The firm now has its eyes on expanding in Europe, and part of that plan will involve setting up extensive data infrastructure in the EU.
The company has announced plans to build a £375m data centre in Ireland to store videos, messages, and personal data from European users. It currently stores all data in data centres in the US and has a back-up facility in Singapore, so an EU-based data centre will help the firm keep data relating to European users within the EU.
Users in the EU are protected by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) data privacy laws, which are much stricter than those used in the US and carry with them hefty fines for data breaches and improper use of data. The EU-based data centre could even be used to store the US user data.
Recent EU rulings have also struck down the EU-US Privacy Shield rules that permitted data to be moved between the EU and US, stating that EU user data would not be sufficiently protected if it moved to the US due to intrusive surveillance laws in the US. The establishment of an EU-based data centre solves this problem for TikTok, which handles data relating to millions of monthly active users.
The location of the new data centre has not yet been revealed, but it's expected to go live in 18-24 months and will create hundreds of new tech jobs.
Source: BBC News
