Former ByteDance CEO Reveals TikTok Secrets

A former executive fired from TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, leveled a series of accusations against the Chinese tech giant on June 12, including that it stole content from competitors like Instagram and Snapchat and served as a “propaganda tool” for the Chinese government by removing inappropriate content or promoting content favorable to the country’s interests.

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The allegations were made in a complaint published on June 12 by Yintao Yu, who was head of engineering for ByteDance’s US operations from August 2017 to November 2018, as part of a lawsuit filed earlier this month in San Francisco Superior Court. Yintao Yu claims he was fired for exposing “misconduct” he saw at the company.

In his complaint, Yintao Yu accused the Chinese government of monitoring ByteDance's work from inside its Beijing headquarters.

Yintao Yu said government officials have the ability to shut down Chinese versions of ByteDance apps and maintain access to all of the company's data, including information stored in the US.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

The charges come as TikTok, one of the most popular social media apps in the US, faces intense scrutiny in Washington and several states over whether it can keep US data safe from the Chinese government. The Biden administration has threatened to ban the app if its Chinese owners do not sell their stakes to US companies.

Meanwhile, TikTok insists it has never provided US user data to the Chinese government and would not do so if asked. In an effort to avoid a ban, TikTok also wants to store US user data on servers operated by US software giant Oracle.

In another aspect of the lawsuit, Yintao Yu alleges that he observed ByteDance promoting content expressing hatred of Japan on its China-only TikTok app, Douyin. At another point, he said the company reduced content expressing support for the Hong Kong protests while promoting content expressing criticism of the protests.

Yintao Yu said ByteDance developed software that could scrape user content from competitor sites without permission. He alleged the company would then repost the content on its own sites, including TikTok, to gain more user engagement.

A TikTok executive in charge of the video-sharing app’s algorithm dismissed his concerns, Yintao Yu said. At some point, he said the company modified the program, but continued to collect data from American users while they were abroad.

The former CEO also accused the company of creating fake users to boost its engagement metrics, including programming them to “like” and “follow” real accounts./.