The US wants to block TikTok and a number of other Chinese applications

The US president is considering blocking a number of Chinese applications. Among them was TikTok from ByteDance.

The plans of the presidential administration were initially announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Later, Donald Trump himself confirmed that the authorities are considering the possibility of blocking.

Over the past few years, there has been a trade standoff between the United States and China. It has already affected the gaming market: America initiated duties on consoles from China.

In the context of the trade war, the question of the fate of TikTok, an application with an audience of 2 billion users (according to Sensor Tower), also arose earlier. Last October, US senators demanded to make sure that the software does not threaten national security. Its authors, ByteDance, were also suspected of establishing political censorship at the instigation of the Chinese authorities.

Now the US government, represented by Trump and Pompeo, claim that the data of TikTok users and other Chinese applications are in the hands of the Communist Party of China. In this regard, the United States wants to limit the capabilities of technology companies in China.

The authors of TikTok deny the charges. This morning, the developer said that he would not “leak” personal information of users to the authorities of the Celestial Empire. Moreover, the app is not available at all on the mainland of China (but its regional version is available — Douyin). “Here in the US, TikTok is run by an American CEO, a team of hundreds of employees and key security, product and public policy specialists,” ByteDance said.

Recently, TikTok was also blocked by India and Hong Kong. The first is because of political tensions with China. The second was initiated by ByteDance itself, which followed China’s new national security law. At that time, the company also stated that it was not discussing the issue of censorship with the Chinese government, and it itself had not made such requests.

Note: if TikTok is also blocked in the USA, it will not cause irreparable damage to ByteDance. According to the SensorTower service, American users are responsible for only 8% of app downloads.

ByteDance is a Chinese startup, the creator of TikTok. This year, he began expanding into the mobile games market, acting as a publisher and as a developer.

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