TikTok's parent company ByteDance plans to set-up data centre in India

Tik Tok's parent company ByteDance on Sunday said it was planning to set-up data centre in India. The Chinese company said that it is in the process of examining options for safe, secure and reliable services for Indian users within India's borders. ByteDance added that it is looking forward to active dialogue with stakeholders.

"As a testimony to ByteDance's recognition of India's efforts to frame a new data protection legislation, we taking a significant step towards establishing a data centre in India. We are now in the process of examining options for safe, secure and reliable services for our Indian users within Indian borders,'' ByteDance said. 

Sources said that ByteDance is planning to invest USD 100 million to set up the data centre in India and the company is eyeing to complete this task in 6-18 months. The company's decision to set up a data centre in India is part of its commitment to invest $1 billion in India over three years.

TikTok currently boasts of over 200 million users and India is its biggest market. It is to be noted that the hugely popular mobile app has also courted several controversies over the past few months. 

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had issued a notice to TikTok and Helo app operators seeking response from them over concerns that people were using these apps to commit anti-Indian and unlawful activities.

A list of questions have been sent to both app operators by the Cyber Laws and e-Security wing of MeitY and the Ministry has also warned TikTok and Helo that if they will fail to submit appropriate response then the government may have to ban them or take action against them as per the relevant provisions of the IT Act and other laws.

The Ministry has sent the notice with a questionnaire covering several issues including unauthorised data sharing by the apps, the apps turning into a hub for anti-national activities and Helo App has apparently paid a large amount of money for putting several morphed political ads on other social media platforms.

TikTok and Helo have been asked by the government to submit their response to the questions on or before July 22, 2019.