White House considered kicking Huawei out

A California college student has sued TikTok, the viral video service run by social media giant Bytedance Inc., for secretly funnelling her personal information to China while using her videos to create an online profile for targeted ads.

The lawsuit, filed last week in the Northern District of California by full-time university student Misty Hong, alleges TikTok harvested her videos, gathered personally identifiable info, then transferred that information to servers in ByteDance’s home country. TikTok did so without her consent, her lawyers said in a filing that didn’t provide evidence to back up the allegations. Bytedance, the world’s most valuable start-up, has come under fire in recent months from American politicians and its mainly teen users alike. A Bytedance representative had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. Huawei on a trade blacklist, which forces some suppliers to obtain a special license to sell to it.

Huawei did not respond to a request for comment. A Treasury spokesperson said the agency “does not comment on investigations or prospective actions, including to confirm whether one exists.” Huawei would have been among the largest companies ever added to the list, which has included Russia’s Rusal, the world’s second largest aluminum company, Russian oligarchs, Iranian politicians and Venezuelan drug traffickers.

Annie Fixler, a cyber expert at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank, said designating the company “would have broad, widespread implications for Huawei across the globe,” noting that its business would be “severely impacted” in Europe and in Asia outside of China.