Exclusive News: A TikTok spokesperson confirms plans to build a €1 billion data center in Finland
TikTok plans to invest €1 billion in Finland to establish a data center to transfer the data storage of European users to Europe. This news was confirmed by a spokesperson and aims to address concerns about the Chinese government accessing user data. TikTok's parent company ByteDance is implementing a data security mechanism called the "Clover Plan," with plans to invest €12 billion over the next 10 years. The company already has multiple data centers in Europe and plans to announce more constructions in the coming years
Reuters Stockholm/Helsinki, April 30 - A TikTok spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that the company plans to invest €1 billion ($1.14 billion) to establish its first data center in Finland, transferring the storage of European users' data to the European continent.
The spokesperson declined to provide further details but confirmed the plans disclosed to Reuters by two informed sources.
The Finnish Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok's parent company is China's ByteDance, which has been working to alleviate concerns about whether the Chinese government can access the data of European citizens using TikTok.
In 2023, under increasing pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic, TikTok launched a new data security mechanism nicknamed the "Clover Plan," with plans to invest €12 billion over the next decade.
Due to privacy concerns, some countries, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and other institutions have banned employees from using TikTok on their phones, while the U.S. government has threatened to ban the app in the U.S. on national security grounds unless it divests its U.S. assets.
TikTok claims these bans are misguided and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how it operates. TikTok states on its website that European users' data is stored in dedicated European data enclaves, hosted in data centers in Norway, Ireland, and the U.S.
According to the "Clover Plan," TikTok's first data center in Norway broke ground in 2023 and became fully operational this month.
Sources say that TikTok, which has over 175 million users in Europe, plans to announce the establishment of more data centers in the coming years
