Chinese social networks and applications have taken the World by storm. It had some implications: while all the Old World major platforms cooperate with US and UK intelligence their Chinese counterparts are generally are not obliged to do so. US forces them to do so in a rather brutal manner.

TikTok app which is popular among young people will soon no longer be available in Hong Kong. The company behind the short music video app is leaving because of the new security law that China has strengthened its grip on the city-state.

The departure from Hong Kong will take a few more days. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese ByteDance, also announced that it would not cooperate with requests from the Chinese government to censor videos or share user data from Hong Kong.

Earlier this week, Facebook, Google and Twitter also reported that they no longer cooperate with requests for user data from the Hong Kong authorities. Google is still assessing calls from the Hong Kong government to remove texts, video or photos from users, such as videos posted on YouTube.

TikTok itself is not undisputed. Last month, it was announced that European privacy regulators are examining the social media app. Among other things, there were concerns about protecting the privacy of children and young people.

In the United States, the ban on the app is now alluded to aloud. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday “to investigate” whether a ban on Chinese apps like TikTok is possible. The Americans fear that Chinese companies will be forced by Beijing to cooperate with intelligence agencies.