Coveney received briefing on TikTok before talks with Chinese ambassador

Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney received a justice briefing on TikTok before talks with the Chinese ambassador days after Ireland’s data regulator slapped a €345 million fine on the social media company for violating children’s privacy.

Ambassador He Xiangdong is known to keep a close eye on the affairs in Ireland of Chinese-owned tech groups like TikTok and Huawei, raising concern in private and publicly on how such groups are supervised.

Although Mr Coveney’s spokesman said TikTok was “mentioned briefly” in the meeting with Mr He, he said the talks were planned weeks before the company was fined in September for multiple breaches of European data law. “The meeting was not in response to TikTok,” said a source close to Mr Coveney.

The ambassador later dismissed cybersecurity concerns over TikTok, whose video-sharing app was banned from Government devices earlier this year because of anxiety about “sensitive public sector data being accessed or stolen”.

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Data regulator Helen Dixon fined TikTok on Friday, September 15th, for flouting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU law to control how business exploits consumer data. The company quickly appealed the penalty in the High Court.

Freedom of Information records show the Department of Enterprise sought a briefing note on TikTok for Mr Coveney from the Department of Justice on Monday, September 18th, ahead of his meeting the following Wednesday with ambassador He Xiangdong.

Justice officials provided a note the next day, setting out Ireland’s prime role in European GDPR investigations and the findings against TikTok.

The company is one several large global tech groups whose pan-European operations are regulated in Dublin by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) because their corporate headquarters for the EU are based in Ireland.

The Justice note said: “It is understood that TikTok disagrees with both the findings and the scale of the fine and is considering its options that would include appealing the decisions to the Irish courts.”

Ms Dixon’s separate investigation into TikTok data transfers to China was also cited. “It is a similar type of investigation to that which concluded this year in relation to Meta and the transfer of data to the US.”

Asked about the scheduling and agenda of talks with China’s ambassador, the Minister’s spokesman said the meeting took place on Wednesday, September 20th.

“It was a meeting scheduled for weeks before the DPC decision on TikTok,” he said.

“In the meeting they discussed bilateral trade between China and Ireland, geopolitical developments [primarily the war in Ukraine] as well as the pharmaceutical, agri-food, electric car and renewable energy markets.

“TikTok was mentioned briefly, with Minister Coveney highlighting the independence and impartiality of the data protection commissioner.”

Asked about the ambassador’s engagements with the Minister on TikTok, the Chinese embassy in Dublin said Mr He made his views clear in a recent newspaper interview.

In the Irish Examiner this month he said cybersecurity fears about TikTok were “nonsense” and accused Dublin of succumbing to American and European “fever” over the company.

Referring to that interview, the embassy said: “Ambassador He pointed out that data protection is a challenge faced by almost all the social media providers in the world, and needed to be resolved by technicians and scientists, and also by the guidance and the supervision of the government authorities in the objective way. So let the technical issue be technical issue, don’t politicise it.”

The Freedom of Information records show Mr Coveney attended a virtual meeting with TikTok on March 1st, five days after the European Commission banned the app and the month before the Irish ban on official devices.

The official minute of that meeting said TikTok was “surprised” by the European Commission’s move and keen “to understand concerns and provide necessary assurances”.

The note said the Minister “welcomed the approach of TikTok to engaging fully with the Commission on a way forward; and undertook to follow-up with the Commission.”

Separate records show TikTok raised aspects of draft EU laws on artificial intelligence with officials in July.

However, TikTok’s position was redacted on grounds that it was obtained in confidence or commercially sensitive. TikTok declined to set out the issues it raised.