A former manager of ByteDance accused the company of illegal activities, including content theft and spoofing user accounts. Moreover, the Chinese authorities were supposed to have “supreme access” to all the data of the parent company TikTok.
Yingtao “Roger” Yu is suing his former employer, ByteDance. Until 2018, the man was the company’s chief technology officer in the United States. He claims he was fired after reporting illegal activities to his superiors at a TikTok-related company.
Yingtao Yu sues ByteDance - talks about access to China’s data
Yu’s troubles begin after he reports “grossly illegal activities” to his superiors. The bosses allegedly ignored reports of the theft of copyrighted material from competing platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat, as well as cases of falsifying user accounts to boost statistics.
Yingtao Yu also claims that TikTok boss Show Chu’s testimony about the platform’s ties to China before the US Congress contradicts his knowledge. According to the fired manager, the Chinese authorities were supposed to have access to the data “through the back door” even when access to the information was blocked for other employees of the company.
The Chinese Communist Party set up a special committee at ByteDance that had “superior access to all company data, even those stored in the US,” Yu wrote in a lawsuit filed in a California court.
ByteDance vehemently denies the allegations
ByteDance says the former employee’s allegations are baseless and the company intends to fight them hard in court. The company added that Yu worked for the company for less than a year.
“ByteDance is committed to respecting the intellectual property of others. At the same time, we collect data in accordance with industry practices and our company’s global policies.
TikTok has previously claimed that it has never shared US data with the Chinese government. Even if the authorities of the country requested such information, TikTok would simply refuse in this situation.
Source: Wprost
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