After Allegations Of Sharing Data With Chinese Govt, TikTok Developer ByteDance To Set Up Data Storage Centre In India

Following allegations by several prominent lawmakers that the company was illegally handing over its users’ data to the Chinese government, Chinese tech giant ByteDance has announced this it will now start storing Indian users’ data domestically by setting up a data centre in the country, reports The Economic Times.

Some of the MPs who had called out ByteDance, which is the company running popular social media app TikTok, were Shashi Tharoor, Pinaki Misra and Jayadev Galla. The economic wing of the RSS had also joined the chorus, asking for a TikTok ban until Indian data protection laws caught up.

Releasing a statement over its plans to localise data storage, ByteDance said, "As a testimony to ByteDance's recognition of India’s efforts to frame a new data protection legislation, we are pleased to announce that we are taking a significant step towards establishing a data centre in India.”

TikTok has more than 120 million active users in India, and their data is presently stored at third-party storage centres in the US and Singapore. This is similar to how other internet giants like Facebook and Google also store their Indian users’ data abroad.