TikTok to exit Hong Kong market within days over new national security law

TikTok will exit the Hong Kong market within days, a spokesman told Reuters late on Monday, as other technology companies including Facebook Inc have suspended processing government requests for user data in the region.
The short form video app owned by China-based ByteDance has made the decision to exit the region following China's establishment of a sweeping new national security law for the semi-autonomous city.

"In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong," a TikTok spokesman said in response to a Reuters question about its commitment to the market.
The company, now run by former Walt Disney Co executive Kevin Mayer, has said in the past that the app's user data is not stored in China.
TikTok has also said previously that it would not comply with any requests made by the Chinese government to censor content or for access to TikTok's user data, nor has it ever been asked to do so.
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The Hong Kong region is a small, loss-making market for the company, one source familiar with the matter said. Last August, TikTok reported it had attracted 150,000 users in Hong Kong.
Globally, TikTok has been downloaded more than 2 billion times through the Apple and Google app stores after the first quarter this year, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The source said the move was made because it was not clear if Hong Kong would now fall entirely under Beijing's jurisdiction.
TikTok was designed so it could not be accessed by mainland China. That was part of a strategy to appeal to a more global audience.
ByteDance operates a similar short video sharing app called Douyin in China.
Although there are no current plans to introduce Douyin to the Hong Kong market, a ByteDance spokesman said, the app already has a sizeable audience in the Asian financial centre as Chinese on the mainland travel and stay in Hong Kong.

Digital strike: India bans 59 Chinese mobile apps on security threat

India has banned 59 Chinese mobile apps, including the popular SHAREit, TikTok, UC Browser, and SHEIN, citing them to be a security threat. The government invoked its powers under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and relevant provisions under IT Rules 2009 to block these apps, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said on Monday.
The move did not come as a surprise as it comes in the backdrop of stand-off along the Line of Actual control in Ladakh with Chinese troops. Other popular apps on the ban list include Club Factory, Helo, and CamScanner. The ministry said it had received complaints about the misuse of some mobile apps available on the Android and iOS platforms “for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data” in an unauthorised manner to servers located outside India. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and the Home Ministry, who had had earlier sent an exhaustive recommendation on the apps to be blocked, were consulted on this issue, the MeitY statement said.
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“The government believes these are data-mining apps that compromise the user’s data and national security,” said Salman Waris, managing partner at New Delhi-based specialist technology law firm TechLegis Advocates & Solicitors. “The next move could be the Department of Telecom asking internet service providers to block IP addresses and access to these apps.”
Waris said the sentiment could hamper the flow of Chinese capital into Indian start-ups. The government had in April amended the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, saying that an entity of a country, which shared a land border with India, can only invest through the government route.

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Blaise Fernandes, director, Gateway House, said there were essentially four types of Chinese apps in India — economic, service oriented, vanity, and strategic. “The Digital India story is globally tracked. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are part of the digital ‘Silk Route’ of China. The ban of the 59 Chinese apps in India will negatively impact the valuations of these apps and their respective promoters,” Fernandes said. The official referred to the upcoming IPO of TikTok and said: “Almost 30 per cent of its user base comes from India. This (ban) will impact TikTok’s valuations negatively.”
However, most home-grown start-ups and Confederation of All India Traders welcomed the move. The CAIT said it was a “big support” to its “Boycott Chinese Goods” campaign. Berges Malu, director (public policy) at ShareChat, a social media start-up, said: “This is a welcome move against platforms that have had serious privacy, cyber-security and national security risks.”

India TikTok ban causing $500,000 daily loss, risks jobs: China's Bytedance

India's ban on popular Chinese video app TikTok is resulting in "financial losses" of up to $500,000 a day for its developer, Beijing Bytedance Technology Co, and has put more than 250 jobs at risk, the company said in a court filing seen by Reuters.
TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with special effects and is one of the world's most popular apps. It has been downloaded by nearly 300 million users so far in India, out of more than 1 billion downloads globally, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

Earlier this month, an Indian state court ordered the federal government to prohibit its downloads, saying the app was encouraging pornography. Acting upon instructions from the federal IT ministry, Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google last week removed TikTok from their India app stores.
The developments have dealt a blow to the India growth plans of Bytedance, which is backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp and by private equity. Bytedance, one of the world's most valuable startups potentially worth around $75 billion, was considering a public listing in Hong Kong this year, sources told Reuters in August.
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The ban has also worried the social media industry in India as it sees legal worries mounting if courts increasingly regulate content on their platforms.
In the filing made to India's Supreme Court on Saturday, Bytedance urged the court to quash the ban and direct the federal IT ministry to tell companies such as Google and Apple to make the app available again on their platforms.
The court filing is not publicly available and its contents have not been previously reported.
Bytedance pegged financial losses at $500,000 each day, which it said includes destruction in the value of its investments and loss of commercial revenue. It added the ban would result in its reputation and goodwill taking a hit with both advertisers and investors.
"Banning has had adverse impact on the user base of this app, losing close to 1 million new users per day ... It is estimated that approximately six million requests for downloads could not be effected since the ban came into effect," the company said in the filing.
A spokesman for TikTok and the federal IT ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
COURT BATTLE, CONTENT WOES
The Supreme Court has so far not provided any interim relief on repeated pleas by Bytedance and referred the case back to the court in southern Tamil Nadu state, where the case will next be heard on Wednesday.
Memes and music videos thrive on TikTok, although some clips show youngsters, some scantily clad, lip-syncing and dancing to popular tunes.
Its growing popularity has drawn criticism from some Indian politicians and parents who say its content is inappropriate.
The Tamil Nadu court, which ruled against TikTok after an individual filed a public interest litigation, has said the app could also expose children to sexual predators.
The Supreme Court filing included a table in which Bytedance compared TikTok to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by listing 13 of its implemented safety features, including parental controls.
A "very minuscule" proportion of TikTok's videos were considered inappropriate or obscene, the company has said.
"The constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of free speech and expression ... of numerous Indian citizens have been severely impacted," the company said in its latest filing.