stance’s parent company, Beijing-based, reportedly spent months negotiating with the United Kingdom’s Department of International Trade and top government officials to expand operations in the country. But now the negotiations are completely stopped. In a commentary on this, ByteDance management referred to a ” broader geopolitical context .” Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for this decision was the British government’s ban on the participation of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei in the deployment of the British 5G mobile network.

The company had hoped to get concessions for the lease of its headquarters building in London, but will now consider locating the headquarters in other cities, possibly Dublin, where it already has several employees.

In the US, it is believed that TikTok can be used by Beijing for espionage, like Huawei’s telecommunications equipment. India has already introduced a ban on TikTok, and the Donald Trump administration is also considering the possibility of such a move. Given the close ties between the United States and Britain, the government of Boris Johnson may subsequently make the same decision.