TikTok to stop app operation in Hong Kong

The move by TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, came as Facebook, Google and Twitter put a hold on requests by Hong Kong’s government or police force for information on users, following China’s imposition of a sweeping new security law.

“In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” TikTok told AFP.

TikTok has consistently denied sharing any user data with authorities in China, and was adamant it did not intend to begin to agree to such requests |||READ MORE

IMG IS NOW SCOUTING MODELS ON TIKTOK

In 2014, IMG Models introduced We Love Your Genes. It's an Instagram account, a hashtag, a scouting program and a broader strategy the agency created to discover fresh faces that it can develop and eventually add to its roster, all rolled into one. And it's had success stories — from Diana Silvers (a break-out in 2019's "Booksmart") to runway regulars like Lameka Fox and Gizele Oliveira.

A lot about social media has changed since then, from the way it looks to how we use it to what the big platforms are. Jeni Rose, SVP at IMG Models, tells Fashionista that the agency had built out a team that works on finding talent on Instagram over the past few years. (By its estimate, a fourth of its recruitment has been done through social media over the last five years.) And it was one of them that brought up TikTok as an opportunity.

"[They] said 'You know, I really think we should start looking at TikTok, because that truly is the demographic and Instagram has gotten so curated that it doesn't look the way it [did] give years ago, when we began scouting there,'" she remembers. "All of us thought, 'We're too old for TikTok. How does that work?'" |||READ MORE …