Pompeo said the US was considering banning Chinese social networking apps, including TikTok, due to national security concerns.

"I don't want to disclose information to President Trump, but that's what we're counting on," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on July 6, referring to a review of banning social networking apps.

Many American lawmakers are increasingly concerned about national security with the handling of user data by TikTok, an application owned by ByteDance, a company based in China.

However, TikTok representative repeatedly asserted that the Chinese government has never requested access to any user's data and even when requested, the company did not share the data.

Pompeo's announcement came amid growing US-China tensions over Covid-19, Hong Kong security laws and a nearly two-year trade war.

TikTok, a popular application in the world, was recently banned in India and 58 other Chinese applications after the clash of border which killed dozens of soldiers of the two countries.

Shortly after the Internet censorship plan appeared in a 116-page document published by the Hong Kong government last night, TikTok said it would stop operating in the special zone.

TikTok is an app launched by Beijing-based technology company ByteDance in 2016 and has been downloaded more than one billion times around the world.