TikTok to leave Hong Kong after China's new law enactment

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Flipboard
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
TikTok to leave Hong Kong after China's new law enactment
TikTok to leave Hong Kong after China's new law enactment

New Delhi : TikTok is set to make an exit from the Hong Kong market within days, a spokesperson told news agency Reuters. This comes after other tech giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter suspended processing government's request to process user data in that region.

The decision from Chinese company Bytedance has been taken after a new national security law for the semi-autonomous city has been passed.

"In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong," a TikTok spokesman said late on Monday in response to a Reuters question about its commitment to the market.

Last week, China had passed the new national security law for the semi-autonomous city.

While TikTok's withdrawal may be viewed as support for the pro-free speech camp, the Chinese-owned service has been repeatedly slammed for censorship and manipulating data according to Beijing's priorities.

Last year, a ByteDance spokesman told the Bloomberg news agency that TikTok did not remove videos of 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.