If TikTok is the new US bogeyman, what does this mean for ByteDance’s overseas expansion plans?
- Launched in 2017, TikTok has faced mounting pressure over past weeks from Washington to Silicon Valley
TikTok has taken the world by storm mostly because it is fun, lighthearted and young.
The viral short video app, wildly popular among teenagers, has finally received some serious attention from adults though - of the unwanted kind.
In a letter addressed to the US national security director on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, are calling on intelligence officials to assess the potential risks posed by TikTok, an app owned by China’s internet upstart ByteDance Technology.
“With over 110 million downloads in the US alone, TikTok is a potential counter-intelligence threat we cannot ignore,” the senators wrote in their letter.
The senators’ concerns are centred on TikTok’s collection of user data and whether China censors content seen by US users, such as information on political protests.
Launched in 2017, TikTok has faced mounting pressure over the past few weeks from Washington to Silicon Valley, triggering speculation that it could become the latest victim to be caught in the crossfire of an intensifying tech war between the world’s two biggest economies – China and the US.
