TikTok To Set Up Data Centers In India

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, recently announced a plan to set up its data centers in India. This decision came out after the company was asked to answer 24 questions issued by the Indian IT ministry regarding the ways it treats user data. The request comes with a warning that if ByteDance failed to answer by 22 July, it might face another ban.

Here was what ByteDance said via a press release:

This decision will comply with the Indian government’s intention to store data harvested by many international companies locally. As reported by Business Standard, the data centers are part of the billion-dollar investment that ByteDance intends to pump into the country in the next three years. The report also said that the Chinese startup planned to set up the centers in six to eighteen months.

According to ByteDance, it is currently storing the data in third-party servers in Singapore and the US. The same statement was revealed earlier this month in response to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s accusation that the company was sharing the information with China.

This is not the first time ByteDance was under fire for allegedly letting inappropriate content spreads. In April, it was banned temporarily as ordered by the Madras High Court. However, the prohibition was removed later that same month.