Skip to main content

Former ByteDance exec claims China had access to TikTok data

TikTok is feeling the heat again after a former leading executive at its parent company, Byte Dance, made a series of damning claims in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed recently in the San Francisco Superior Court

Among the allegations made by Yintao Yu was that the Chinese Community Party (CCP) “maintained supreme access” to TikTok data stored in the U.S. when he worked for the company between 2017 and 2018.

TikTok logo on an iPhone.
Digital Trends

Yu also said in the lawsuit that he believes ByteDance “has served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.”

Recommended Videos

The suit comes as U.S. lawmakers continue to consider the future of the social media app amid growing concerns over TikTok’s impact on U.S. national security and data privacy, Axios reported.

Yu, who reportedly worked as head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S. operations, claimed in the lawsuit that the CCP had a “special office or unit” operating inside the Beijing-headquartered company, adding that it “played a significant role” by influencing “how the company advanced core Communist values” within the app.

The lawsuit accused the company of promoting “nationalistic content [that] served to both increase engagement on ByteDance’s websites and to promote support of the CCP,” adding that the CCP could also access U.S. user data via a “backdoor channel in the code.”

Yu’s suit alleges that ByteDance was “aware that if the Chinese government’s backdoor was removed from the international/U.S. version of the app, the Chinese government would, it feared, ban the company’s valuable Chinese-version apps.”

TikTok has always insisted that the Chinese state has no access to its user data and that U.S. data is stored in the U.S. and Singapore. Responding to the allegations, ByteDance said it will “vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations in this complaint.”

Since Yu left the company in 2018, TikTok has taken several measures to protect U.S. user data, some of which are part of a $1.5 billion initiative called Project Texas.

The future of TikTok’s existence in the U.S. is still hanging in the balance as lawmakers from across the political divide consider moves that would potentially give the American government the power to ban TikTok nationwide.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
TikTok faces outright ban in first U.S. state
TikTok icon illustration.

TikTok received more bad news on Wednesday after Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed into law a bill banning the popular app from January 1, 2024.

While more than half of U.S. states have already issued TikTok bans on government-issued devices, Montana’s action against the Chinese-owned app is significant as it’s the first state to impose a total ban on the app.

Read more
TikTok’s new captions and translation features are all about accessibility
The TikTok app on a smartphone's screen. The smartphone is sitting on a white table.

Following along with those TikTok cooking videos or other content might get a little easier with the short-form video platform's newest features.

On Thursday, TikTok announced via a blog post that it would begin the rollout of three new accessibility and translation features for its wildly popular videos. These new features include auto-generated captions, translations for video descriptions and captions, and even translations for those text stickers people add to their TikTok videos.

Read more
What is the TikTok blackout challenge? The dangerous trend that has parents suing
tiktok logo

TikTok is notable for challenges that are popular among children and teenagers. Most challenges are harmless, like dance challenges and style transition challenges using the same audio associated with them. Other challenges are malicious, like "devious licks," a challenge that encourages students to steal or vandalize school property.

Even more worrying, a few other challenges have posed serious dangers to the young TikTok users participating in them. One such challenge is the "blackout challenge." According to a July 2022 report from The Verge, seven children — whose ages ranged between 8 and 14 — allegedly died of strangulation after TikTok showed them videos of people trying to choke themselves. This is according to lawsuits filed by the children's parents.
What the TikTok blackout challenge is

Read more