Refusing To Share Data With The Government, TikTok Leaves Hong Kong

TikTok application illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Creative video platform TikTok, plans to discontinue its services in Hong Kong. The move was taken after refusing a request from the Hong Kong government to access TikTok user data.

The reason was related to the implementation of a new national security law (UU) in Hong Kong. Through the new law, the Chinese government seeks to control matters related to the anti-government movement, including the elimination of social media if the government considers posts by activists to be subversive.

"In light of the recent events, we have decided to stop operating the TikTok application in Hong Kong," said a TikTok spokesperson, Tuesday, July 7.

This is considered to be against TikTok. Moreover, TikTok has long emphasized that it never stores user data in China. So that the platform made by ByteDance will not necessarily comply with requests to censor content or provide access to user data.

Not only TikTok, a number of other world technology companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter will also suspend requests from the Hong Kong government and the police regarding the implementation of the new National Security Law.

The company, now run by former Walt Disney executive Kevin Mayer, also thinks that TikTok's departure from Hong Kong will not disrupt their business. The reason is that there are only a few active TikTok users in Hong Kong.

Because ByteDance has already operated a similar short video sharing application called Douyin in China. But globally, TikTok is a popular application that has been downloaded by more than 2 billion users through the Apps Store and Google Play Store.

On the other hand, this application has also received attention from a number of countries. Recently, the Indian government also blocked 59 applications from China, including TikTok. Because it is considered to threaten the security of the country's data.