TikTok unveils ambitious plan

TikTok is going through one of its toughest times since its inception in the West due to growing allegations of espionage by ByteDance, the Chinese company behind it. However, the company has an ambitious plan to prevent lockdowns in Europe.

London was the first stop for the TikTok executives, according to The Wall Street Journal. There they met with British lawmakers to report on how they think they can protect the privacy of European users. To this end, they are planning to launch what is called Project Clover, an initiative that involves the construction of two data centers in Ireland.

There, TikTok promises to store information related to user accounts in Europe. But his plan goes even further. The company also intends to hire an independent European firm to monitor the operation of the application in order to prevent any unauthorized attempts to transmit data. While it will rely on Oracle to analyze the changes to be applied to the video recommendation algorithm. The latter is done in order to dispel doubts about the use of the platform for propaganda purposes.

Trying to win the support of British lawmakers seems to be the first step in trying to show more transparency in Europe. As a reminder, TikTok has been hit hard in the European Union because, although it is not subject to a veto at a general level, its use on the mobile phones of officials and staff of the European Commission has been banned.

Gaining UK support could be critical to the subsequent attempt to change its image in the EU. Last but not least, TikTok's new data centers will be built in Ireland, which is part of the European bloc. Today, the platform has 150 million monthly active users in Europe, of which 125 million are from the European Union.

Project Clover, TikTok's plan to prevent European vetoes

TikTok's plan to showcase transparency in Europe could be more difficult than the company suggests. The Wall Street Journal points out that, according to some lawmakers who participated in the presentation, there remains skepticism about the extent to which ByteDance could be denied China's hypothetical request to transfer its users' data. Despite this, they stressed that the company is committed to demonstrating clearer information management to the public.

The truth is that Project Clover comes on the scene shortly after TikTok introduced Project Texas to the US. Although its plan to prevent blocking in North America is markedly different from the one presented in the UK, which will cover all European users.

TikTok's initiative in the US is not about setting up its own data centers to store user information from that country. On the contrary, the social network offered to delegate its management to the cloud infrastructure provided by Oracle. However, the fine print of the agreement was not finalized, leading to delays in negotiations with the White House.

At the moment, the use of TikTok is already banned on official mobile phones of the US government, Canada and the European Commission. But the specter of total isolation continues to hover over the head offices.