TikTok will exit the Hong Kong market within days, a spokesman has told Reuters, as other technology companies including Facebook 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 late on Monday in response to a Reuters question about its commitment to the market.
The company, now run by former Walt Disney executive Kevin Mayer, has said in the past 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.
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 two 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.
Tiktok's comments came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was "certainly looking at" banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok.
"I don't want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump) but it's something we're looking at," Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News.
US lawmakers have raised national security concerns over TikTok's handling of user data, saying they were worried about Chinese laws requiring domestic companies "to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party".
Australian Associated Press
