US may ban Chinese social media apps including TikTok, says Mike Pompeo

WASHINGTON • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US is "certainly looking at" banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, suggesting it shared information with the Chinese government, a charge it denied.

"I don't want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump), but it's something we're looking at," Mr Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.

Lawmakers in the United States 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".

Mr Pompeo said Americans should be cautious in using the short-form video app owned by China-based ByteDance.

"Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party," Mr Pompeo remarked when asked if he would recommend people to download TikTok.

In response to his comments, TikTok told Reuters it has never provided user data to China.

"We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users. We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked", TikTok said in an e-mailed statement.

The app, which is not available in China, has sought to distance itself from its Chinese roots to appeal to a global audience.

Mr Pompeo's remarks come amid increasing US-China tensions over a nearly two-year trade war, the handling of the coronavirus outbreak and China's establishment of a new national security law in the former British colony of Hong Kong.

Mr Pompeo earlier lashed out at what he called China's "Orwellian" moves to censor activists, schools and libraries in Hong Kong under the sweeping security law.

The authorities in the financial hub have ordered schools to remove books for review under the law, which criminalises certain opinions such as calls for independence or more autonomy. Libraries in Hong Kong said they were pulling titles written by a few pro-democracy activists.

"The Chinese Communist Party's destruction of free Hong Kong continues," Mr Pompeo said in a sharply worded statement. "With the ink barely dry on the repressive national security law, local authorities - in an Orwellian move - have now established a central government national security office, started removing books critical of the CCP from library shelves, banned political slogans, and are now requiring schools to enforce censorship," he said.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE