❓WHAT HAPPENED: The European Union’s top data privacy regulator announced it is launching its second investigation this year into whether TikTok is storing European user data on servers located in China, in violation of EU laws.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The EU, the Data Protection Commission (DPC), TikTok, ByteDance, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and U.S. President Donald J. Trump.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The DPC investigation was announced on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: The EU regulator expressed “deep concern” about the integrity of its prior investigation after discovering that “TikTok had submitted inaccurate information.”
🎯IMPACT: TikTok could face new financial sanctions after being fined €530 million ($620 million) in May over violating EU data privacy laws.
The Chinese-owned social media company TikTok is facing a second European Union (EU) investigation over allegations that it illegally transferred European user data to company servers in China. In May of this year, the EU’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined TikTok a total of €530 million ($620 million) over the same allegations—though the social media giant insists that EU user data was only accessed in China remotely and not directly stored on servers in the country.
On Thursday, the DPC announced it had opened a second investigation into TikTok’s data practices. The DPC also confirmed that earlier this year, TikTok admitted to the EU regulator that “limited EEA user data had in fact been stored on servers in China,” referring to the European Economic Area (EEA)—which includes EU member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. The EU regulator stated it has “deep concern” about the integrity of the prior investigation after it was discovered that “TikTok had submitted inaccurate information.”
TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, have been subject to increasing scrutiny in the EU and the United States over their data practices and allegations that they are under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While the social media giant has made significant investments, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, in building data services in Europe and the United States, either by its own admission or by evidence from whistleblowers, TikTok has been shown to have continued storing European and American data in China.
The latest EU investigation aims to determine if TikTok has, subsequent to the May DPC findings, brought itself into compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—the EU’s extensive data privacy law.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald J. Trump has continued to push for a non-Chinese company to purchase TikTok’s American operations from ByteDance. Trump has delayed a potential U.S. ban of the social media app several times as discussions over ByteDance’s divestment from it remain ongoing.
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