TikTok Relocating? Company In Talks For London HQ To Try And Distance Itself From Chinese Ownership

TikTok, the video-sharing app massively popular amongst young audiences, has reportedly been in talks to brings its headquarters to London. A source close to the situation told Reuters that TikTok has been holding talks with the British government in an attempt to distance itself from its Chinese owners. The move could potentially bring around 3,000 new jobs to the U.K.

Several locations are reportedly on the table for TikTok, but these other options are unknown, and the company has yet to make a final decision.

Reuters notes in its report that the company has recently been hiring extensively in California, suggesting a potential U.S. move. This option might make sense given TikTok's recent CEO hiring of Kevin Mayer, a former executive for Disney.

The source claims that discussions are ongoing despite a Sunday Times report that talks were broken off due to current conflicts between the U.K. and Chinese businesses. The British government recently moved to ban Huawei, a popular Chinese telecommunications company, from doing business in the U.K. and forced it to begin removing its technology from the country’s 5G network.

TikTok has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years due to concerns that the Chinese government may be collecting data from its users, posing a considerable security risk. While this is unconfirmed, the company has at certain points been caught deleting or censoring content critical of China and its government.

In response to these concerns, President Trump has considered imposing a ban on the platform. India banned it in June, and several government offices and private businesses have banned employees from downloading the app on the work or personal smartphones due to the privacy risk.

First released by ByteDance in 2016, TikTok has become among the most popular apps in the world, with an install base of around 800 million and availability in 75 languages. The app is noted for its considerable popularity with teenagers.