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TikTok is still fighting to stay in the US, but new lawsuits could make things more complicated for the company. A former ByteDance executive alleged that TikTok owners used bots and stolen content to boost engagement on the app.
The lawsuit was filed with former engineering chief Yintao Yu, new york times, ByteDance alleges that Yu was unfairly fired after pushing back on company practices such as stealing material from other apps. It also claims that ByteDance served as “a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party,” allowing China-based employees to access US users’ data.
As new york times Mr Yu’s claims “describe how ByteDance operated five years ago” and emerged after “several years of mediation,” he said. Still, the allegations could still lead to even greater scrutiny of TikTok, which faces a nationwide ban. Lawmakers and other officials say TikTok is a national security threat and the app cannot be trusted to protect US users’ data.
Mr. Yu’s allegations may reinforce those concerns. The lawsuit details that a “special unit of Chinese Communist Party members” working at the Chinese Communist Technology Office in Beijing “led how the company promoted its core communist values.” . He also alleged that ByteDance employees manipulated China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, to suppress content about Hong Kong protests and “lift up content that expresses hatred of Japan.”
Some of Yu’s claims relate directly to TikTok. In particular, he claims that ByteDance engineers stole popular content from apps like Instagram and Snapchat and posted the videos on TikTok. He also alleges that the company used bot accounts to boost the app’s engagement metrics when it was just launching and trying to gain a foothold in the US. (Yu left ByteDance in November 2018, shortly after Musical.ly rebranded as TikTok.)
Spokespeople for ByteDance and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. But TikTok has repeatedly tried to downplay its ties to ByteDance and China, including CEO Shou Zi Chew’s congressional testimony. The company is also pouring more than $1 billion into his company, which aims to block TikTok’s US user data from the rest of ByteDance, in order to allay US regulators’ concerns.
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