The European Union expresses alarm about TikTok's business in Europe, and the ByteDance app promises the bloc that it will continue to follow its rules.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew arrived in Brussels on Tuesday, hoping to reassure the European Union that his app, which has been vying for the top social media platform for years, would follow the bloc's tech rules and privacy and child safety commitments.
For years, the Chinese ByteDance social media app has fought tooth and nail in the United States to ensure that users' data was not at risk.

Following concerns from the FBI director and cybersecurity experts that China may use the social media platform to allegedly spy on US citizens, Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a bipartisan pair of congressmen in the House introduced legislation to ban TikTok in the United States in December.

TikTok has come under increased scrutiny since admitting last month that some of its employees improperly accessed the user data of two journalists in an attempt to identify the source of information leaks to the media.

TikTok, on the other hand, has received less scrutiny than its American counterparts due to the significant violations the latter are committing. This may only last for a short time as the 27-nation bloc seeks to tighten its grip on social media and further police it while limiting Big Tech's power.

Chew's trip to Brussels began with a meeting with EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who stated, 'The goal of the meeting with TikTok was to review how the company is preparing to comply with its obligations under the European Commission's regulation, namely the Digital Services Act (DSA) and possibly under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).' 

'At the meeting, the parties also discussed GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and questions of privacy and data transfer requirements, concerning recent press reports on active data collecting and spying in the US,' according to the EU statement.

Meanwhile, Vera Jourova, Commissioner for Values and Openness, expressed her concerns to Chew, including the security of European data, child safety, the propagation of 'disinformation' on the platform, and the transparency of political advertising. 'I expect TikTok to fully execute its obligations to go the extra mile in respecting EU legislation and recovering the trust of European regulators,' she said following the meeting.

Furthermore, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told Chew that TikTok might do more to eradicate hate speech from its platform.

TikTok stated that it is committed to transparently following EU rules. 'It's a major priority for us to be ready for this,' said Theo Bertram, it's vice president for public policy in Europe, in a tweet.

TikTok proposed to subject an additional portion of its business to external auditing in its latest bid to reassure the US government and persuade it to remain functioning under its owner ByteDance.

According to a story published by Reuters in late December, the popular app has been 'trying to assure US government departments and agencies for the last three years' that China's Communist Party (CCP) cannot access or influence its content.

TikTok has come under fire from the Democratic and Republican parties, and the US administration is mulling a plan to keep the app operational in the country.