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STORY: Taiwan's government has opened an investigation into TikTok.

It suspects the Chinese-owned social media platform illegally runs a subsidiary on the island.

Taiwan's Liberty Times newspaper reported TikTok's owner ByteDance had set up the subsidiary to tout for business.

The report said that would break Taiwanese law that Chinese social media platforms cannot have commercial operations on the island.

Authorities have confirmed they discovered a suspected breach of the law, and said there was a high risk of the Chinese government collecting user's personal information.

ByteDance denied the accusation.

Taiwan has banned a wide range of Chinese business operations - from social media platforms to its highly valued chip manufacturing industry.

TikTok is not widely used on the island, but is growing in popularity among the youth, according to market research firms.

Taiwan has long complained China uses social media to spread disinformation on the island Beijing claims as its own territory.

TikTok has also come under pressure elsewhere, mainly in the U.S..

That over worries about China getting access to users' personal data, which the company denies.