Executive fired from TikTok’s Chinese owner says Beijing had access to app data in termination suit

A former government fired from TikTok’s dad or mum firm ByteDance made a raft of accusations in opposition to the tech large Friday, together with that it stole content material from opponents like Instagram and Snapchat, and served as a “propaganda tool” for the Chinese authorities by suppressing or selling content material favorable to the nation’s pursuits.

The allegations have been made in a criticism Friday by Yintao Yu, the top of engineering for ByteDance’s US operations from August 2017 to November 2018, as a part of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed earlier this month in San Francisco Superior Court. Yu claims he was fired for disclosing “wrongful conduct” he noticed on the firm.

In the criticism, Yu alleges the Chinese authorities monitored ByteDance’s work from inside its Beijing headquarters and offered steering on advancing “core communist values.”

Yu stated authorities officers had the flexibility to show off the Chinese model of ByteDance’s apps, and maintained entry to all firm information, together with data saved within the United States.

ByteDance didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The allegations come as TikTok – probably the most standard social media apps within the US – faces heighted scrutiny in Washington and a few states about whether or not it will possibly hold American information protected from the Chinese authorities. The Biden administration has threatened to ban the app if its Chinese house owners do not promote their stakes.

TikTok maintains it by no means gave US person information to China’s authorities and would not accomplish that if it was requested. In an effort to keep away from a ban, it additionally desires to retailer US person information on servers operated by the software program large Oracle. In one other attention-grabbing a part of the lawsuit, Yu alleges he noticed ByteDance selling content material that expressed hatred for Japan on Douyin, the Chinese model of TikTok. At one other time, he stated the corporate demoted content material that confirmed assist for the protests in Hong Kong whereas selling content material that expressed criticism of the protests.

Yu stated ByteDance developed software program that may scrape person content material from opponents’ web sites with out permission. He alleges the corporate would then repost the content material by itself web sites – together with TikTok – to draw extra engagement from customers.

Yu stated a fellow TikTok government answerable for the video-sharing app’s algorithm waved off his issues. At some level, Yu stated the corporate modified this system, however continued to scrape information from US customers after they have been overseas.

The former government additionally alleges the corporate created faux customers to spice up its engagement metrics, together with by programming them to “like” and “follow” actual accounts.

Yu is looking for punitive harm, misplaced earnings and 220,000 ByteDance shares that had not vested by the point he was fired.

Stay on prime of know-how and startup news that issues. Subscribe to our day by day publication for the most recent and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.