The news: TikTok was fined €530 million (about $600 million) by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) for violating privacy law and exposing 175 million EU users’ data to potential access from China. 

“TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EU personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counterespionage, and other laws,” the DPC said, per The Guardian.

The fine, which is the third largest served under GDPR, reinforces US lawmakers’ impetus for ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban, a decision that has been twice delayed by President Donald Trump. The DPC’s findings could intensify concerns that users’ data on the service remains vulnerable and accessible in China.

TikTok denies any wrongdoing: TikTok said it would appeal, stating that the DPC’s decision covered a select period before the 2023 implementation of Project Clover, a data security initiative that provides additional data protection for users.

TikTok-parent ByteDance said the DPC found no evidence it shared European user data with Chinese authorities and claimed it has never received or fulfilled such requests from Beijing. This echoes CEO Shou Zi Chew’s appeal to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee in November when he said that ByteDance was not an agent of China or any other country.

However, TikTok told regulators in February that it found that a “limited” amount of European user data was stored in China, contradicting earlier claims, per CNBC.

Global trust in TikTok is eroding: The DPC’s ruling and subsequent fine underscore a persistent and growing fear—TikTok may be structurally unable to wall off user data from Chinese influence. 

While TikTok has invested heavily in privacy initiatives like Project Clover, the damage to credibility is done. 

Our take: Regulators and lawmakers now have a stronger case to probe TikTok’s compliance posture—especially as similar investigations unfold in the US, the UK, and Australia.

Persistent privacy problems could accelerate urgency for creators, users, and advertisers to seek alternatives or at least diversify to other platforms, like Instagram or YouTube.