(ByteDance) is suspected of tax evasion and the Indian government has ordered its bank accounts to be frozen. Previously, ByteDance’s product TikTok (ShakeYin international version) has been declared “permanently banned” by the Indian government due to security risks.
On March 30, Reuters quoted two sources as saying that India ordered the freezing of TikTok’s Indian accounts at Citibank and HSBC in mid-March due to alleged tax evasion by TikTok and its products.
One of the sources said that India has asked both Citibank and HSBC to prohibit ByteDance India from withdrawing funds from other related bank accounts with the same tax identification number.
The source said that a high court in Mumbai, India, will hear the case soon.
ByteChip has asked the court to revoke the order to freeze the accounts. The source was told that a document submitted to the court by Bytespring said that Bytespring India claimed that its entire business had come to a standstill due to the freezing of its bank accounts, which violated its right to “conduct free trade and business”.
Another source said the freezing of assets could affect ByteChip’s ability to pay employees and suppliers.
Neither Bytespring India, HSBC, Citibank nor the Indian Ministry of Finance immediately responded to Reuters’ request for comment.
India announced the banning of 59 Chinese apps to protect national security, including TikTok, after clashes erupted along the India-China border in 2020. in January this year, India announced a permanent ban on these Chinese apps.
Subsequently, ByteTok announced layoffs in India. Currently ByteDance has about 1,300 employees in India, most of whom are engaged in overseas business, including content review.
In mid-February this year, Bloomberg news said that ByteTok was planning to sell TikTok’s business in India, and the deal was made with Glance, an Indian technology company.
Previously, TikTok has been subject to security questions in the United States and Australia, among other countries. The U.S. Trump administration announced in August 2020 that it would censor TikTok, and U.S. officials are concerned that TikTok collects U.S. user data and gives it to the Chinese Communist government, and that TikTok may also be used to promote the Chinese Communist Party.
On February 26 this year, the U.S. Federal District Court in Illinois issued documents showing that U.S. TikTok users collectively sued ByteTok for privacy violations, and ByteTok subsequently agreed to pay a $92 million settlement.
In early February, the Australian Department of Home Affairs required employees to disable TikTok on their work phones, and the Australian Department of Defense imposed this ban on its employees in early 2020.
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