Germany’s Culture Minister, Wolfram Weimer, has called for TikTok’s European operations to be placed under European ownership, citing concerns over data privacy and security.
Speaking on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with European Union counterparts in Brussels, Weimer said Europe should follow the same path taken by the United States regarding the popular social media platform.
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. In the United States, ByteDance handed control of TikTok’s US operations to a majority American-owned joint venture after facing threats of a possible ban.
Weimer said Europe should now consider a similar approach.
“I am firmly convinced that Europe should follow the American example and that the company’s ownership structure must be put up for discussion,” he said.
He added that TikTok’s European business should be placed “in European hands”.
The German minister also raised concerns about how user data is handled. According to him, TikTok collects massive amounts of information from young Europeans, while uncertainty remains about where the data eventually goes.
“TikTok collects data on Europe’s young people on an unimaginably large scale,” Weimer said.
He added that Europe does not fully know what happens to the information, describing it as “the most intimate data of Europe’s youth”.
TikTok has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has taken steps to address European concerns. The platform says it stores European users’ data within Europe and limits access to the information.
However, the platform remains under scrutiny from the European Union.
Earlier this year, the EU warned TikTok that it could face heavy fines if it failed to change what regulators described as the platform’s “addictive design”.
TikTok is also being investigated over allegations of foreign interference linked to Romania’s presidential elections in late 2024.
