Under fire TikTok pledges to follow EU rules

Social media platform TikTok, famed for bite-size videos of pranks and dances, said Friday it was working hard to comply with EU rules after the bloc’s leaders demanded greater efforts from the firm.

TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, is already facing calls for a ban in the US over its links with Beijing, and is now under fierce scrutiny in the European Union.

The bloc’s top officials recently accused the platform of failing to deal with problems related to data, copyright and access to harmful content.

TikTok said in a statement that it had bolstered its staff working on compliance, and promised to host the data of European users in Ireland.

Among the new laws is the Digital Services Act (DSA), due to come into force in September, which obliges platforms to remove illegal or harmful content or face massive fines and even a total ban.