The project to build a TikTok data processing center in Finland was kept secret for more than half a year. The government learned about the investment when land was purchased for the Chinese social media platform's server center and the first building permits were issued, Yle radio reported.
The government found out about it too late – admitted, not hiding his astonishment, the head of the Ministry of Economy, Wille Rydman, who only received information about the Chinese company's investment plans, estimated at around EUR 1 billion, last Monday.
The facility in the city of Kouvola (approx. 130 km north-east of Helsinki) will be built by Finnish developer Hyperco, and TikTok will be its main user, the city announced, emphasizing that TikTok is also a tenant of similar data centers in other places in Europe (TikTok's server center in Norway was launched in April).
According to Yle's findings, TikTok's investment in Finland is being carried out by billionaires from Dubai who do business with Donald Trump in Russia and China. The offices of Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo did not respond to the radio's questions about the controversial project.
Due to data security, user privacy protection, and concerns about “espionage,” many institutions in Western countries have banned the use of Chinese TikTok on official devices. This has been done by the US House of Representatives, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Finnish National Assembly (Eduskunta) and Council of Ministers.
On Friday, TikTok's owner was fined more than half a billion euros in Ireland for failing to adequately protect information over the transfer of personal data of customers in the European Economic Area to Chinese authorities. Bytedance said it would appeal the decision.
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