TikTok officials have made it clear that they are not afraid of a possible regulation or ban in Romania, and say that any decision should be “based on facts, not rumors.” TikTok also announced for the first time how many people moderate content posted by Romanians on the network. Why are TikTok executives saying the network should NOT be called “Chinese”?

TikTok: We prefer to rely on facts rather than rumors and political speculation

TikTok has found itself at the center of controversy in several countries around the world: some have banned it altogether, and in other regions and countries the application has been removed from the phones of officials in various institutions. In Romania, there are also discussions about “regulating” the application, citing reasons related to the spread of political propaganda.

“We are a transparent company, we answer questions, but concerns should be based on facts and data, not rumors and misunderstandings,” says Jakub Olek, director of public and government relations for TikTok in Central and Eastern Europe.

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Company officials were present in Bucharest to announce the progress of a project called Clover ($12 billion investment), through which the program tries to convince Europeans that data does not fall into the hands of the Chinese.

TikTok, which has more than 7 million users in Romania, has for the first time provided data on the number of “content” moderators involved in content published by Romanians, totaling 136 people, with potential for growth. TikTok representatives claim that the main competitor (on Facebook) would have 35 moderators for Romania.

TikTok officials say that thanks to the measures taken by the company in Europe, especially through the “Clover project”, which you can read about below, the accusations against TikTok are unfounded. If the accusations are based on concrete data, then the most pessimistic scenarios (with bans or strict rules) are impossible, the company says.

“We prefer to rely on facts, not on rumors and political speculation,” says Jakub Olek.

Politics, youth and TikTok

Recently, the European press has written about far-right European parties that use TikTok to attract the votes of the mass youth who would otherwise not want to go to the polls.

We asked TikTok representatives what steps the company could take.

“TikTok has freedom of expression, we must not forget that. You can post such messages on TikTok , but you cannot pay to create a campaign, and election campaigns and political ads are prohibited on our platform, which is different from other platforms where you can pay and create your campaign. This is a key difference,” explains TikTok Central Europe’s director of public and government relations.

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So, TikTok can be used in election campaigns, but not for building and running structured campaigns.

Concerns are also being expressed about the various propaganda that is spreading rapidly on the Internet.

“Propaganda has no place on TikTok, and we remove any behavior that violates the rules and is dangerous,” company officials say, but acknowledge there is more to do. TikTok data shows that 96% of content that violates the rules is removed immediately so that no user can see it.

It should be said here that since there is a lot of content published on TikTok, it is impossible not to have many videos with profanity, nudity, xenophobic or hateful messages. AI software can’t be perfect, and it’s important that users who see messages that make them angry report them.

“There is no TikTok in China and there is no connection between TikTok and the Chinese government”

Many criticize TikTok for its ties to China, fearing Chinese espionage and sensitive data being leaked to the Chinese state. TikTok denies such things.

What do they say about network ownership?

The ByteDance group, of which TikTok is a part, is 60% owned by international investors, including from the United States. The remaining 40% of the shares belong to 20% each of one of the Chinese founders (who has lived in Singapore for more than ten years) and 150,000 employees.

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ByteDance’s tax headquarters are in the Cayman Islands, and its largest “physical” headquarters are in Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States. For our region, there is an office in Warsaw, where more than 100 people work, from where 16 countries are coordinated, Poland and Romania being the largest in the region.

Even if the TikTok network is not in China, the ByteDance group has companies there that work in several fields.

“When you think of ByteDance, you have to think of any big company that owns smaller companies, and ByteDance also owns companies that operate and are registered there. That is why there is a misconception that TikTok is a Chinese company. But it’s NOT SO”

“TikTok is not available in China, so it should not be subject to any legal obligations from the Chinese state. The Chinese government did not ask us for any data, and we did not provide them with data, and we would not have provided it if they had asked us,” concludes Yakub Olek, who assures that the data of Europeans does not reach China.

“TikTok is a kind of geopolitical football being passed between the US and China, but if we focus on the real issues – such as the security of data, what is stored or how it is processed – TikTok has responded in an exemplary way for the industry.” , – believes the representative of the company.

Officials of TikTok claim that the network collects less data than the main competing social networks, and cite as an example the fact that TikTok does not collect data about the GPS positioning of the user, as well as what keys are pressed on the computer or on the phone .

The Clover plan is how TikTok wants to convince Europeans that their data is not being shared with the Chinese government

In March 2023, TikTok announced the opening of two new data centers, one in Ireland and one in Norway, with an announced annual investment of €1.2 billion. TikTok is criticized for its ties to China, but is trying to convince the EU authorities of the complete security of user data. The center in Ireland has been operating since 2023.

In December 2023, the company announced that the first of three data center buildings in Norway was commissioned. The other two buildings of the center in Hamar are due to be handed over in the second half of next year, and the process of transferring user data will start in late 2024. After the completion of the process, it will be the largest data center in Europe.

Once completed, the three data centers will be the default data storage location for European TikTok users, with an annual investment of €1.2 billion, the company said. The centers should be fully operational by the end of 2024.

Clover’s plan is for ten years, with a total promised investment of $12 billion.

For better oversight and independent audits, in September 2023, TikTok chose a European third-party data security partner: NCC Group. It monitors and audits ordering and data protection, controls data flows, provides independent verification and incident reporting.

Source: Dreamstime.com