Ireland to set up the first Datacenter in Europe

The controversial Chinese app TikTok reported on Thursday that they will set up their first European data center. The choice has been made in Dublin, Ireland.

The move comes days after the parent company ByteDance announced that it was considering moving TikTok’s head office abroad. There has already been a report in the British media that London has been the focus of attention.
Ireland

TikTok’s $ 499 million investment in Ireland comes at a time when relations between China and the West are downright bad, with disagreements about trade, the coronavirus to the political situation in Hong Kong.

American president Donald Trump and other US lawmakers believe that the company is a national security risk and the app may be banned in the United States on September 15, especially if the US business is not sold to Microsoft.

Ireland is a European hub for data centers and already hosts large technology companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google.

“The data center of the TikTok, will create hundreds of jobs and is a sign of a long-term commitment to Ireland”, wrote Roland Cloutier, Chief Information Security Officer, in a blog post.

Foreign companies account for 1 out of 10 Irish jobs, attracted by low corporate tax rates.

The app has also moved the privacy monitoring of European users to Ireland. That happened in June. According to TikTok, Irish and British entities will take over the US branch, which means that the management and protection of the personal data of European users will no longer take place in America.

“TikTok’s decision to establish the first European data centre in Ireland is very welcome and places Ireland at the heart of the company’s global activities,” said Martin Shanahan, head of the Irish state institution in charge of attracting foreign investment.