As US scrutiny mounts, is TikTok set to be the next Huawei?

Washington weighs adding social media app to same trade blacklist as tech titan

TikTok has come under fire in the U.S. due to concerns about user privacy. © Reuters

YIFAN YU and COCO LIU, Nikkei staff writers

July 17, 2020 12:53 JST

PALO ALTO, U.S./HONG KONG -- Last year, tech titan Huawei found itself at the center of the trade war and the target of an intensifying U.S. crackdown. Now, Washington's scrutiny has turned to another Chinese tech company: the wildly popular video-sharing app TikTok.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said publicly that the government is "looking at potentially banning" Chinese social media apps including TikTok, citing national security concerns -- the same reason that Huawei was blacklisted in 2019.