Taiwan Investigates TikTok For Suspected Illegal Operations

Taiwan's government has opened a probe into Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok on suspicion of illegally operating a subsidiary on the island, though the company's owner denied the accusation. From a report: TikTok, which is not widely used in Taiwan, has come under pressure mostly in the United States on concerns about China getting access to users' personal data, which the company denies. In a statement late on Sunday, Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said that on Dec. 9 a working group under the Cabinet had discovered that TikTok was suspected of 'illegal commercial operations' in Taiwan.

Taiwan's Liberty Times newspaper reported that TikTok's owner, ByteDance, had set up a subsidiary on the island to tout for business, contravening Taiwanese law that Chinese social media platforms are not allowed commercial operations on the island. The Mainland Affairs Council, responding to that report, said the Cabinet's working group had discovered that there was indeed a suspected breach of the law, and legal authorities were investigating.

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