IRELAND’S PRIVACY REGULATOR has opened an investigation into social media platform TikTok over allegations that it mislead the agency during a previous probe into the handling of European users’ data.

TikTok in May were fined €250m after it was found that it had stored European users’ data on Chinese-hosted online servers.

During that inquiry, the firm originally told the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) that the information was not housed within China and that its Beijing-based employees accessed users’ details remotely.

It was later confirmed by TikTok that it had given erroneous information to investigators, the DPC said. On foot on that, a fresh inquiry has now opened into the platform’s accountability when it comes to handling and managing the data of European citizens.

TikTok is also under investigation for allegedly failing to adhere to Section 31 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which places an obligation on companies to cooperate with investigators from the DPC and other European privacy agencies.

The transfer of data to China is also being reviewed once more, the DPC said today. 

In the first investigation, TikTok did correct the statements it originally gave to the Irish data watchdog, which had been probing the platform’s compliance with GDPR and other relevant laws on behalf of the entire EU.

It said that the original denial of the allegations was incorrect and that the company did in fact store information in China. Deputy Commissioner at the DPC Graham Doyle said that the agency was taking the mistaken statements very seriously at the time.