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Project Clover: How Ireland finds itself in an awkward position on TikTok

The Chinese-owned company is in damage-control mode, with Ireland at the centre of its efforts to assuage fears of misuse of users’ data

Britain, Canada, the European Commission and several EU countries have implemented significant limits on the use of TikTok on official devices due to concerns it could be used to gather data on its users on behalf of the Chinese government

On March 5, Colm Markey, Fine Gael MEP, issued a press release raising “serious concerns” over the data storage practices of TikTok and calling on the government to ban the app from official devices.

Within hours he had received a lengthy response from Susan Moss, TikTok’s head of public policy in Ireland, detailing how the social media giant protects its users’ information and explaining why she felt his comments were wide of the mark.

Markey ...