After the recent change of laws that Bejing applied to Hong Kong, different apps like Facebook, Google and Twitter will no longer be available in the region, as well as TikTok, even if the company is not not directly involved with the police. A spokesperson from the company said: “Following the recent change of events, we decided to stop the activities of TikTok in Hong Kong”.
It’s still not clear why the company took this decision. Some people speculate that ByteDance, still connected to the central government (like any other company in China) wants to replace TikTok with Douyin, the censored version of the app already used in China. Other think that by stopping their activity in Hong Kong the company wants to limit the surveillance on the activists present on the app from the Chinese government.
But if the exit from Hong Kong was voluntary, things could go differently in the USA. On Monday evening, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during an interview with Fox News said that the Trump administration might ban TikTok in the United States, fearing that it could be potentially used by the Chinese government to spy on people and for propaganda. A spokesperson from TikTok responded to the comments made by Pompeo by saying that both the CEO of the company, Kevin Mayer and thousands of employees are American: “Our main priority is the promotion of a safe and protected app for our users. We never shared any data with the Chinese government and we wouldn’t even if they asked”. These are difficult times for the app, that at the end of May was accused of violating the privacy of its users.
It’s still not clear why the company took this decision. Some people speculate that ByteDance, still connected to the central government (like any other company in China) wants to replace TikTok with Douyin, the censored version of the app already used in China. Other think that by stopping their activity in Hong Kong the company wants to limit the surveillance on the activists present on the app from the Chinese government.
But if the exit from Hong Kong was voluntary, things could go differently in the USA. On Monday evening, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during an interview with Fox News said that the Trump administration might ban TikTok in the United States, fearing that it could be potentially used by the Chinese government to spy on people and for propaganda. A spokesperson from TikTok responded to the comments made by Pompeo by saying that both the CEO of the company, Kevin Mayer and thousands of employees are American: “Our main priority is the promotion of a safe and protected app for our users. We never shared any data with the Chinese government and we wouldn’t even if they asked”. These are difficult times for the app, that at the end of May was accused of violating the privacy of its users.
