TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, in an official letter to the Indian government, reportedly said that the Chinese government has never asked for Indian user data and even if it did, Tiktok will not provide the details.
TikTok along with 58 other apps with Chinese affiliations was banned early this week by the Indian government citing national security and user data transparency concerns.
TikTok which is not available in China is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. ByteDance expects a loss of over $6 billion after the Indian government ban. The firm also has its Helo and Vigo Video app on the list of blocked apps.
Tencent Holding’s WeChat and Alibaba Group’s UC Browser were other prominent apps that faced a ban following India’s border clashes with China.
The letter sent by the TikTok official is reportedly a pre-cursor to an interaction which likely to happen next week between the company and the government. Though the ban is not expected to be revoked in the immediate future.
ByteDance which has committed an investment of $1 billion, is looking at a fallout that concerns its 3,500 direct and indirect employees who work on content available which is available in 14 languages.
Reaffirming its presence in the Indian market, Mr. Mayer said that “The privacy of our users, and the security and sovereignty of India, are of utmost importance to us. We have already announced our plans to build a data center in India.”
Since its launch in 2017, TikTok has become one of the fastest-growing social media apps in the region followed by the United States.
