Hong Kong: China's ByteDance will remove its TikTok app from Hong Kong mobile stores in coming days, becoming the first internet service to withdraw from the city after Beijing enacted sweeping powers to crack down on national security threats.
That announcement comes as the Chinese-owned service itself comes under fire in the US for censoring content and controlling a wide swath of American users' data. On Monday, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Fox News "we're certainly looking" at a ban on Chinese social media apps, including TikTok.
ByteDance, the world's most valuable startup, operates some of the most popular social media platforms on both sides of the Pacific. TikTok is now the video destination of choice for more than 100 million mainly younger Americans, while its Douyin and Toutiao services are major entertainment and news venues for a similar number of Chinese.
TikTok said its Hong Kong exit could occur within days.
"In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong," a spokesperson for the service said.
An exodus from Hong Kong
TikTok's departure could augur an exodus of social media companies. Its proclamation comes after internet giants from Facebook Inc. to Google and Twitter Inc. voiced opposition to national security legislation that grants the Hong Kong government sweeping powers to police the online and public spheres. The US companies said they won't process data requests from the city's government amid concerns the new security law could criminalize protests.
Sensor Tower data showed that as of September 2019, TikTok had about 1.8 million downloads in a city of 7.4 million people.
TikTok has faced persistent allegations its decisions on content align with Beijing's priorities. It has targeted videos related to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the mistreatment of Muslims in China's Xinjiang region,and standoffs at the India-China border.
Last year, a ByteDance spokesman told Bloomberg TikTok didn't remove videos from the Hong Kong protests for political reasons, saying they may have instead been taken down for violating guidelines around violent, graphic, shocking or sensational content.
