Report: TikTok Insiders Say App Is Tightly Controlled by Chinese Parent Company

Former TikTok employees have recently claimed that there is cause for concern about the megapopular app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance and the tight control it holds over the social media platform.

CNBC reports that a number of former TikTok employees have stated that the tight control held over the video-sharing app by its Chinese parent company could be cause for concern.

CNBC writes:

A former TikTok recruiter remembers that her hours were supposed to be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., but more often than not, she found herself working double shifts. That’s because the company’s Beijing-based ByteDance executives were heavily involved in TikTok’s decision-making, she said, and expected the company’s California employees to be available at all hours of the day. TikTok employees, she said, were expected to restart their day and work during Chinese business hours to answer their ByteDance counterparts’ questions.

This recruiter, along with four other former employees, told CNBC they’re concerned about the popular social media app’s Chinese parent company, which they say has access to American user data and is actively involved in the Los Angeles company’s decision-making and product development. These people asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the company.

TikTok launched internationally in September 2017. Its parent company, ByteDance, purchased Musical.ly, a social app that was growing in popularity in the U.S., for $1 billion in November 2017, and the two were merged in August 2018. In just a few years, it has quickly amassed a user base of nearly 92 million in the U.S. In particular, the app has found a niche among teens and young adults — TikTok has surpassed Instagram as U.S. teenagers’ second-favorite social media app, after Snapchat, according to an October 2020 report by Piper Sandler.

It was reported that TikTok’s privacy policy states that the company can share the data it collects with ByteFance, stating: “We may share all of the information we collect with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group.”

TikTok downplayed the importance of this access, with a spokesperson stating: “We employ rigorous access controls and a strict approval process overseen by our U.S.-based leadership team, including technologies like encryption and security monitoring to safeguard sensitive user data.”

But Bryan Cunningham, the executive director of the Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine, believes that the policy could expose users to information requests by the Chinese government. “If the legal authorities in China or their parent company demands the data, users have already given them the legal right to turn it over,” said Cunningham.

COMMENTS