China on Saturday denied it required companies to hand over data after TikTok was hit with a massive fine in the European Union for its handling of personal data.

Irish investigators said TikTok did not protect the data of users in the European Union, improperly transferring some of it to China. TikTok said it would appeal.

European Union privacy watchdogs fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app's data transfers to China breached the EU's strict data privacy rules.