Amazon rescinds TikTok deletion

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon on Friday asked its employees to delete the Chinese-owned video app TikTok from their cellphones, putting the tech giant at the center of growing suspicion and paranoia about the app.

Almost five hours later, Amazon reversed course, saying the email to workers was sent in error.

In the initial email, which was obtained by The New York Times, Amazon officials said that because of “security risks,” employees must delete the app from any devices that “access Amazon email.” Employees had to remove the app by Friday to remain able to obtain mobile access to their Amazon email, the note said.

In a statement sent later Friday, company spokeswoman Kristin Brown said, “There is no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTok.”

But by then, the initial email had already added to the storm surrounding TikTok, which has been popular with young audiences in the United States for its short, fun videos, and which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance. Because of its Chinese ownership and heightened tensions between the United States and China over issues such as trade and technology dominance, TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny in Washington over its security.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the Trump administration was considering blocking some Chinese apps, which he has called a threat to national security.

Many users who have built community and business on TikTok are fearful of a broad ban. Some Amazon employees publicly shared dismay at not being able to use the app.

Last year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal panel that reviews foreign acquisitions of American firms on national security grounds, opened a national security review of ByteDance’s acquisition of the American company Musical.ly, which eventually became TikTok.

In December, the Defense Department began telling military personnel to delete the app from governmentissued phones. The same month, the Democratic National Committee warned campaigns, committees and state parties about TikTok’s “Chinese ties and potentially sending data back to the Chinese government.”

With TikTok making headlines for similar security concerns, the committee reiterated its warnings about TikTok in one of its regular security emails this week.

ByteDance has made a series of moves in response to the concerns. The company said it would separate TikTok from much of its Chinese operations, and that users’ personal data would be stored in the United States and not in China. In May, ByteDance hired Kevin Mayer, a former Disney executive, to be chief executive of TikTok based in Los Angeles.

It has said that managers outside China call the shots on key aspects of its business, including rules about data.