TikTok Gets an Amazon-Sized Scare
The company needs a better response to China-related security concerns even after Amazon retracted an order for employees to delete the app.
A slow boil of troublesome developments risks cascading into a full-blown crisis.
Photographer: Lam Yik/BloombergWhat was a turbulent enough week for TikTok turned downright bizarre on Friday.
Already, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned that the Trump administration was looking at banning the short-video platform owned by Beijing-based parent ByteDance Ltd. over data-privacy concerns, and President Donald Trump himself said he was considering banning TikTok as one way to retaliate against China over the coronavirus. Then things got worse when Amazon.com Inc. on Friday sent an email to employees telling them to delete the TikTok app from mobile devices they use to access company email, citing “security risks.”