Besieged app TikTok hires lobbyists

Parent ByteDance weighs ways to look less Chinese

20191119 USA-CHINA/TIKTOK

TikTok has been downloaded 1.5 billion times. Third-quarter downloads fell 4% on the year to 177 million even as TikTok rose to the second-most-downloaded app from No. 4, data from U.S. research firm Sensor Tower shows. © Reuters

ALEX FANG, Nikkei staff writer

NEW YORK -- Another day, another swipe by Washington at TikTok, and the short-video app's Chinese owner ByteDance has turned to lobbying as it braces for the Grindr treatment.

Citing TikTok by name, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley introduced Monday a bill to prohibit technology companies with ties to China from transferring U.S. user data to the Asian country.

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