Former ByteDance Executive Says China Had 'Supreme' Access To TikTok Data In Lawsuit

A former executive fired from TikTok's parent company ByteDance made some startling revelations in a complaint filed in a California court. 

Yintao Yu, who was terminated in 2018, said that, during his time at ByteDance, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had access to all data via a backdoor channel even though American user data was stored in the U.S., The New York Times reported on Friday.  

According to the complaint, Yu was fired because he had raised concerns about a "worldwide scheme" to steal and profit from other companies' intellectual property.

ByteDance's offices in Beijing allegedly had a particular group of CCP members who monitored the company's apps, "guided how the company advanced core Communist values," and possessed a "death switch" that could turn off the Chinese apps entirely, the New York Times reported, citing the lawsuit. 

However, ByteDance called the allegations "baseless" and said it would vigorously fight the suit.

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"ByteDance is committed to respecting the intellectual property of other companies, and we acquire data in accordance with industry practices and our global policy," a ByteDance spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to the newspaper. 

In the lawsuit, Yu also said he was "struck by the misdirection" of TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew's testimony before Congress — which had aimed to ease national security concerns about the platform's ties to China — especially in light of Chew's supposed knowledge that the CCP had maintained a "backdoor channel" to U.S. user data.

"The Committee maintained supreme access to all the company data, even data stored in the U.S.," the lawsuit states. "After receiving criticism about access from abroad, individual engineers in China were restricted from accessing U.S. user data, but the Committee continued to have access."

The lawsuit also accused ByteDance engineers of copying videos and posts from Snapchat and Instagram without permission and then posting them on TikTok. 

Yu said that the company also created fake users to boost engagement numbers.

According to a report by WSJ, TikTok will likely have 2.5% of the U.S. digital ad market this year and its U.S. ad revenue will likely surge 36% to $6.83 billion.

As TikTok faces a possible ban in the U.S., it has proposed a $1.5 billion plan to isolate its U.S. operations from China.

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