TikTok launches ‘Project Clover’ charm offensive to fend off European bans
TikTok is on a mission to quell European authorities’ worries regarding Chinese surveillance by launching a counteroffensive. In a bid to prevent further restrictions on its app use, the social media platform revealed plans to keep more European users’ data located on servers within the continent and have a renowned European security company rigorously audit their cybersecurity and data protection provisions.
Dubbed “Project Clover”, this undertaking pays homage to last year’s “Project Texas” which promised similar assurances to U.S. legislators. The General Counsel of TikTok, Erich Andersen, is currently touring key capitals in order to report this information in person.
Recently, several governments along with the European Commission, Council of the EU and European Parliament have sought to restrict all or part of their employees from utilizing the app due to cyber and privacy anxieties. One leading apprehension among European security delegates is that user information gathered by TikTok could potentially be disclosed to China or become accessible to Chinese authorities as ByteDance (the Beijing-based parent company) is subject to Chinese legislation that may compel it to cooperate with the government on data access requests.
Source: TikTok launches ‘Project Clover’ charm offensive to fend off European bans – POLITICO
