ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, has been accused of enabling CCP members to access the information of Hong Kong civil rights activists and protesters.
In a US court document, former ByteDance executive Yintao Yu claims that users who posted "protest-related content" were also identified and monitored.
Additionally, according to Mr. Yu, the CCP members had access to US TikTok user data.
ByteDance's spokesperson refuted the allegations and called them "baseless.".
The accusations are included in a document submitted this week to the San Francisco Superior Court as a part of a claim made by Mr. Yu.
In the document, Mr. Yu asserted that CCP committee members had access to a "superuser" or "god user" credential that gave them the ability to view all data gathered by ByteDance.
Additionally, he claimed that despite being physically present at ByteDance's offices in Beijing, the committee members were not ByteDance employees.
According to Mr. Yu, who worked as the head of engineering for ByteDance in the US for about a year starting in August 2017, this was common knowledge among senior executives.
The filing further claimed that in 2018, CCP committee members employed their "god credential" to "identify and locate the Hong Kong protesters, civil rights activists, and supporters of the protests.".
The so-called Umbrella movement, which involved massive protests in Hong Kong in 2014, called for the freedom to choose one's own leader. Following that, civil rights activists held smaller protests. Following the 2019 anti-government protests, Beijing cracked down with a harsh national security law, which has resulted in the disappearance of much of this visible dissent.
The allegations were vehemently refuted by ByteDance when contacted by the BBC: "We plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations in this complaint," the company's spokesperson said. ".
They added that Mr. Yu worked for the business for less than a year and during that time was involved with the now-defunct Flipagram app.
It's odd that Mr. Yu hasn't brought up these accusations in the five years since his employment with Flipagram ended in July 2018. The ByteDance spokesperson continued, "It is obvious that his actions are designed to attract media attention.
Mr. Yu's assertions come at a time when TikTok is receiving extensive international scrutiny.
At a US congressional hearing in March, TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled for four and a half hours.
Democrats and Republicans grilled Mr. Chew about the app's data security and privacy policies as well as its alleged connections to Beijing.
The politicians were "grandstanding," a TikTok spokesperson claimed after the fact.
The Chinese-owned video-sharing platform was outlawed in its entirety by Montana in May, making it the first US state to do so.
A ban is expected to go into effect in January 2024. Although it forbids app stores from selling TikTok, it does not prevent users who already own the app from using it.
Because the ban violates US free speech rights, TikTok has filed a lawsuit to prevent Montana from enforcing it. The app was prohibited from being used on official devices in Montana, a state with a population of just over a million.
According to TikTok, 150 million Americans use it. Despite the app's growing user base in recent years, teenagers and users in their 20s continue to be its most devoted audience.
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