TikTok’s plan to base its international HQ in the UK has been thrown into doubt following pressure by Washington over the Chinese firm’s future in the US.
ByteDance, owner of the video sharing app, has had talks with the government about basing its HQ in London.
But the US is considering banning TikTok and may only allow it to keep operating if it splits from China and becomes an American company.
“We remain fully committed to investing in London,” said a ByteDance spokesman.
A spokeswoman for the Department for International Trade said: “ByteDance’s decision on the location of their global HQ is a commercial decision for the company.”
It comes as tensions mount between the UK and China over the government’s recent decision to order the removal of Huawei’s 5G equipment from Britain’s mobile networks by 2027.
(BBC)
