Connect with us

Tech

An Ex-TikTok Official Claims China Had Access To App Data

Avatar of Salman Ahmad

Published

on

An Ex-TikTok Official Claims China Had Access To App Data

(CTN News) – According to a former executive who was terminated by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance on Friday, the company stole content from competitors such as Instagram and Snapchat, as well as acting as a “propaganda tool” for the Chinese government by suppressing or promoting content favored by the government.

According to the complaint, made Friday by Yintao Yu, head of engineering for ByteDance’s US operations from August 2017 to November 2018, the allegations are part of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed earlier this month in San Francisco Superior Court. Yu claims he was terminated as a result of his disclosure of “wrongful conduct” at the company.

The complaint alleges that the Chinese government monitored ByteDance’s work from its Beijing headquarters and provided guidance on advancing “core communist values.”

In addition to being able to disable the Chinese version of ByteDance’s apps, Yu said government officials also had access to all of ByteDance’s data, including that in the United States.

In response to a request for comment, ByteDance did not respond immediately.

As a result of the allegations, TikTok – one of the most popular social media applications in the United States – faces increased scrutiny in Washington and some states about its ability to protect American data from the Chinese government. Unless the Chinese owners of the app sell their shares, the Biden administration is threatening to ban the app.

According to TikTok, it has never provided US user data to China’s government and would not do so if asked to do so. Additionally, it plans to store US user data on servers operated by the software giant Oracle in order to avoid a ban.

Another prominent aspect of the lawsuit is Yu’s allegation that ByteDance promoted content that expressed hatred for Japan on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

It was also reported that the company degraded content that expressed support for the protests in Hong Kong while promoting content that expressed criticism of them.

Yu stated that ByteDance developed software that would scrape user content from competitors’ websites without their consent. According to him, the company would repost the content on its own websites – including TikTok – to increase engagement.

Yu indicated that a fellow TikTok executive who was responsible for the video-sharing app’s algorithm waived off his concerns. Yu stated that at some point, the company changed the program, but continued to scrape data from US users when they traveled abroad.

The former executive alleges that the company created fake users in order to improve engagement metrics, including programming them to “like” and “follow” real accounts.

Besides punitive damages, Yu is seeking lost earnings and 220,000 ByteDance shares that had not yet vested at the time of his termination.

SEE ALSO:

Netflix Cancels Lockwood & Co. After One Season

Continue Reading

CTN News App

CTN News App

Recent News

BUY FC 24 COINS

compras monedas fc 24

Volunteering at Soi Dog

Find a Job

Jooble jobs

Free ibomma Movies