TIKTOK, the video-sharing app that has found itself at the center of Sino-U.S. tensions, is setting up its first data center in Europe with a 420 million euros (US$500 million) investment in Ireland, the company announced Thursday.

Promising to create hundreds of jobs, improve the safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data and shorten loading times for users in Europe, the new data center is expected to be operational by early 2022.

Once it goes online, European user data will be stored at that location, TikTok said. The outfit established its EMEA Trust and Safety Hub in Dublin earlier in the year and said the new investment “signals our long-term commitment to Ireland.”

Beijing-based parent company ByteDance Ltd. has been working to distance its domestic Chinese operations from TikTok in order to appease overseas regulators.

It is currently facing a six-week deadline to conclude a deal with Microsoft Corp. or another American company for the sale of its U.S. operations. It presently stores international user data on servers in the United States and Singapore.

The move to expand its operations within EU borders is part of TikTok’s global effort to prove itself a responsible Internet citizen and a trustworthy service provider.

As part of the new data center development, TikTok is also continuing to grow its data protection and privacy teams, the company said. (SD-Agencies)