Former ByteDance Exec Says China Can Access TikTok User Data, Even When It's Stored on US Soil
upstart writes:
Yintao "Roger" Yu, a former ByteDance executive based in California, filed a lawsuit against his former employer alleging a list of wrongdoings. According to Yu, ByteDance has stolen content from other creators online, discriminated against employees, and inflated its engagement metrics.
A striking allegation Yu made against ByteDance has been highly suspected but yet to be proven. Yu alleges that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the ruling political party in China, can and has accessed TikTok user data.
Yu alleges that the CCP uses ByteDance as a political propaganda tool and cites two examples in which he witnessed ByteDance promote or demote content on TikTok that aligned with the CCP's political goals.
According to the court filings, "Mr. Yu observed that ByteDance has been responsive to the CCP's requests to share information, and even to elevate or remove content at the request of the CCP."
Yu alleges that ByteDance promoted content that expressed hatred for Japan, and in 2018, ByteDance demoted content that expressed support for political protests in Hong Kong. Yu alleges this was possible in Hong Kong because the CCP monitored activists' locations via backdoor data access.
[...] According to Yu's filing, storing US user data on US soil does not mean the CCP cannot access the data, and the only way to ensure China cannot access the data is to shut the backdoor.
[...] TikTok declined to address Yu's allegations, but a ByteDance spokesperson discredited the allegations by mentioning that Yu did not work for TikTok but for Flipagram, another ByteDance-owned app.
ByteDance's spokesperson questioned Yu's intentions by mentioning that Yu was terminated from Flipagram in 2018 and is now coming forward with his allegations.
[...] However, these allegations are found in a wrongful termination lawsuit and do not supply any further evidence, like internal memos or messages. Yu is the first former ByteDance employee to publicly allege that the relationship between ByteDance and the CCP is too close for comfort.
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