Social media platform TikTok plans to soon withdraw from the Hong Kong market in response to a national security law that's raising concerns about data privacy.
That law was imposed by mainland China last week. It criminalizes attempts at succession, terrorism, subversion against China's central government, and colluding with foreign forces.
Beijing released implementation guidance for the law Monday. Under it, Hong Kong police can conduct raids without a warrant, as well as seize equipment from internet companies and service providers and force them to take down content from online. Those firms are also expected to comply with data requests.
Individuals or companies that don't comply with demands from authorities could be fined almost $13,000 and face up to two years in prison.
The TikTok app is expected to be inoperable to all Hong Kong users by the end of the week. It'll also be pulled from Apple and Google stores in the region. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which reported in 2019 that it had 150,000 users in Hong Kong.
Other tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, have stopped processing Hong Kong police requests for data while they review the national security law.
Contains footage from CNN.
