HONG KONG (AP) 鈥 A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the popular short-video app TikTok, says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong.
Yintao Yu, formerly head of engineering for ByteDance in the U.S., says those same people had access to U.S. user data, an accusation that the company denies.
Yu, who worked for the company in 2018, made the allegations in a recent filing for a wrongful dismissal case filed in May in the San Francisco Superior Court. In the documents submitted to the court he said ByteDance had a 鈥渟uperuser鈥 credential 鈥 also known as a god credential 鈥 that enabled a special committee of Chinese Communist Party members stationed at the company to view all data collected by ByteDance including those of U.S. users.
The credential acted as a 鈥渂ackdoor to any barrier ByteDance had supposedly installed to protect data from the C.C.P鈥檚 surveillance,鈥 the filing says.
Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous region in China with its own government. In recent years, following mass protests in 2014 and 2019, the former British colony has come under more far reaching control by Beijing.
Yu said he saw the god credential being used to keep tabs on Hong Kong protesters and civil rights activists by monitoring their locations and devices, their network information, SIM card identifications, IP addresses and communications.
ByteDance said in a statement that Yu鈥檚 accusations were 鈥渂aseless.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 curious that Mr. Yu has never raised these allegations in the five years since his employment for Flipagram was terminated in July 2018,鈥 the company said, referring to an app that ByteDance later shut down for business reasons. 鈥淗is actions are clearly intended to garner media attention.
鈥淲e plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations in this complaint,鈥 ByteDance said.
Charles Jung, Yu鈥檚 lawyer and a partner at the law firm Nassiri & Jung, said Yu chose to raise the allegations because he was 鈥渄isturbed to hear the recent of TikTok鈥檚 CEO鈥 when Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean, vehemently denied Chinese authorities had access to user data.
鈥淭elling the truth openly in court is risky, but social change requires the courage to tell the truth,鈥 Jung said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to him that public policy be based on accurate information, so he鈥檚 determined to tell his story.鈥
TikTok is under intense scrutiny in the U.S. and worldwide over how it handles data and whether it poses a national security risk. Some American lawmakers have expressed concern that TikTok鈥檚 ties to ByteDance means the data it holds is subject to Chinese law.
They also contend that the app, which has over 150 million monthly active users in the U.S. and more than a billion users worldwide, could be used to expand China鈥檚 influence.
During the combative March lawmakers from both parties grilled Chew over his company鈥檚 alleged ties to Beijing, data security and harmful content on the app. Chew repeatedly denied TikTok shares user data or has any ties with Chinese authorities.
To allay such concerns, TikTok has said that it would work with Oracle to store all U.S. data within the country.
In an earlier court filing, Yu accused ByteDance of serving as a 鈥減ropaganda tool鈥 for the Chinese Communist Party by promoting nationalistic content and demoting content that does not serve the party鈥檚 aims. He also said that ByteDance was responsive to the Communist Party's requests to share information.
Yu also accused ByteDance of scraping content from competitors and users to repost on its sites to exaggerate key engagement metrics. He says he was fired for sharing his concerns about 鈥渨rongful conduct鈥 he saw with others in the company.
In mainland China, ByteDance operates Douyin, which is targeted at the domestic market. TikTok is its global app that is available in most other countries. It was also available in Hong Kong until TikTok pulled out of the market in 2020 following the imposition of a sweeping national security law.
Anyone who tries to open TikTok from within Hong Kong will see a message that reads 鈥淲e regret to inform you that we have discontinued operating TikTok in Hong Kong.鈥
