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In a letter to the Indian authorities dated June 28th and seen by Reuters on Friday, TikTok Chief Executive Kevin Mayer mentioned the Chinese authorities has by no means requested consumer information, nor would the corporate flip it over if requested.
- Reuters New Delhi
- Last Updated: July 4, 2020, 7:37 AM IST
Social media app TikTok distanced itself from Beijing after India banned 59 Chinese apps in the nation, in accordance to a correspondence seen by Reuters.
In a letter to the Indian authorities dated June 28th and seen by Reuters on Friday, TikTok Chief Executive Kevin Mayer mentioned the Chinese authorities has by no means requested consumer information, nor would the corporate flip it over if requested.
TikTok, which isn’t obtainable in China, is owned by China’s ByteDance however has sought to distance itself from its Chinese roots to enchantment to a world viewers. Along with 58 different Chinese apps, together with Tencent Holdings Ltd, WeChat and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, UC Browser, it was banned in India this week following a border conflict with China.
“I can confirm that the Chinese government has never made a request to us for the TikTok data of Indian users,” Mayer wrote, including that information for Indian customers is saved in servers in Singapore. “If we do ever receive such a request in the future, we would not comply.”
The letter was despatched forward of a probable assembly subsequent week between the corporate and the federal government, one supply acquainted with the matter informed Reuters.
One Indian authorities supply informed Reuters this week the ban was unlikely to be revoked quickly. Lawyers have mentioned a authorized problem was unlikely to achieve success, given India has cited nationwide safety considerations for the ban.
The ban, which upset India’s rising legion of TikTok stars, has additionally given a elevate to native rivals reminiscent of Roposo, which added 22 million new customers in the 48 hours after the ban took impact.
TikTok has dedicated to spend $1 billion in the area. Since its launch in 2017, it has turn into one of many fastest- rising social media apps. India is its largest market by consumer, adopted by the United States.
In the letter, Mayer performed up the corporate’s funding in the area, highlighting greater than 3,500 direct and oblique workers and content material obtainable in 14 languages.
“The privacy of our users, and the security and sovereignty of India, are of utmost importance to us,” Mayer wrote. “We have already announced our plans to build a data centre in India.”
The correspondence was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and different media.
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