Tik-Tok to Exit from Hong Kong
TikTok has said it will quit Hong Kong after China imposed a new security law on the city.
“In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” a spokesman told the BBC.
The company’s exit from the city will come “within days,” according to the Reuters news agency.
Facebook and Twitter said this week they were “pausing” co-operation with Hong Kong police over user information.
The short-form video app was launched by China-based ByteDance for users outside mainland China as part of a strategy to grow its global audience.
The tech company operates a similar short video sharing app in China called Douyin.
- TikTok’s Boogaloo extremism problem
- TikTok ban surprises India content makers
TikTok, now run by former Walt Disney executive Kevin Mayer, has said in the past that the app’s user data is not stored in China.
The company has also said previously that it would not comply with any Chinese government requests to censor content or give access to its users’ data, nor has it ever been asked to do so.
However, the controversial national security law in Hong Kong has given Chinese authorities sweeping new powers, raising concerns about data privacy.
TikTok has also consistently said that if asked, it would never hand over data to Beijing – and that it’s never been asked for any user data either.
Staying in Hong Kong, under the new law, may make it difficult for it to keep to that commitment.
