TikTok, ByteDances former executive who was terminated from the parent company, has made several accusations against the tech giant. In a complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Yintao Yu, the former head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S. operations, claims that the company stole content from competitors like Instagram and Snapchat. Yu also alleges that ByteDance acted as a “propaganda tool” for the Chinese government, manipulating content to favor the country’s interests.
According to Yu, ByteDance’s work was closely monitored by Chinese government officials at their Beijing headquarters. The government provided guidance on promoting “core communist values.” Yu further asserts that the Chinese government had the power to disable ByteDance’s apps in China and had access to all company data, including information stored in the United States.
In response to the allegations, ByteDance has not provided immediate comment on the matter.
These accusations emerge at a time when TikTok is facing increased scrutiny in the United States. Concerns have been raised about the app’s ability to safeguard American user data from the Chinese government. The Biden administration has even threatened to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners fail to divest their stakes in the company.
TikTok has consistently denied any wrongdoing and maintains that it has never shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government. In an attempt to avoid a ban, the company has proposed storing U.S. user data on servers operated by Oracle, a leading software corporation.
Another noteworthy allegation in the lawsuit is Yu’s claim that ByteDance promoted content expressing hatred towards Japan on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Furthermore, Yu states that the company demoted content supporting the Hong Kong protests while promoting content critical of the protests.
Yu also accuses ByteDance of developing software to scrape user content from competitors’ websites without authorization. The company would then repost this content on its own platforms, including TikTok, to boost user engagement.
According to Yu, his concerns were dismissed by a fellow TikTok executive responsible for the app’s algorithm. Although ByteDance made some modifications to the program, it allegedly continued to gather data from U.S. users even when they were abroad.
Additionally, Yu alleges that ByteDance created fake user accounts to manipulate engagement metrics by artificially “liking” and “following” real accounts.
In the lawsuit, Yu seeks punitive damages, compensation for lost earnings, and the release of 220,000 ByteDance shares that had not vested at the time of his termination.