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TikTok to quit Hong Kong after India ban and US threats to outlaw app

This photo taken on November 21, 2019, shows the logo of the social media video sharing app Tiktok displayed on a tablet screen in Paris: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images
This photo taken on November 21, 2019, shows the logo of the social media video sharing app Tiktok displayed on a tablet screen in Paris: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images

TikTok has quit Hong Kong, pulling the viral video app from stores.

The decision comes after the passing of a new national security law that requires technology companies to have hand over and control data about users in Hong Kong. But it also removes a platform that has become key for activists, who have used it to post videos of protests and supporting their fight for an independent Hong Kong.

TikTok's parent company, Bytedance, has faced questions over its relationship with the Chinese state as it has rapidly grown in popularity.

The company did not specify why it was removing the app from Hong Kong, only indicating in a statement that the decision came "in light of recent events".

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The app had some 150,000 users in Hong Kong, it said last year, making up only a very small proportion of the more than two billion people who are said to have downloaded the app.

A number of companies – including Facebook, Twitter and Google – have publicly opposed the new law. Some, such as WhatsApp, have already announced that they will not respond to