Days after India banned TikTok over privacy and security concerns, the video sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has claimed it will pull out of Hong Kong Market due to ‘new Chinese law’. As per reports, TikTok made this ‘decision’ after Chinese government changed some data privacy law wherein Hong Kong companies would have to share user data with the Chinese government. TikTok has claimed that since it does not share user data with government, the alleged change in law will not make it possible for them to continue operations.
It must be noted that India had banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps over privacy and security concerns in June this year. TikTok India had also claimed that the company does not share user data with the Chinese government. Now, TikTok has claimed that since it does not share user data with Chinese government, it will have to pull out of Hong Kong after the communist government in China introduced a new law by which would track online activity.
Interestingly, while TikTok had millions of users in India, as of September last year, TikTok had only 1,50,000 users in Hong Kong. As per the company, it was a small and unprofitable market. Reuters reported that TikTok was not accessible from mainland China and hence the parent company ByteDance operates Douyin, a China-specific video sharing app.