ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, acknowledged on Thursday that an internal investigation revealed employees had improperly accessed the data of US TikTok users, including that of two American journalists. The incident came to light through an email seen by Reuters.
The targeted journalists were Emily Baker-White, formerly associated with BuzzFeed and now with Forbes, and Cristina Criddle of the Financial Times. ByteDance confirmed this, although it refrained from disclosing the identities of other affected TikTok users.
According to an email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen, the employees accessed the data in an attempt to probe leaks of confidential company information. Their goal was to uncover potential connections between the journalists and ByteDance personnel.
All four employees involved in the breach were terminated, contradicting an earlier statement indicating one resignation. The quartet comprised two individuals based in China and two in the United States, as per The New York Times.
ByteDance stated that it had reorganized its internal audit and risk department and had revoked access to US data for that unit.
During the summer, members of a ByteDance team tasked with monitoring employee behavior sought to identify the sources of suspected leaks of internal discussions and corporate documents to journalists. In the process, they obtained IP addresses and other data of two reporters and a small group associated with them via their TikTok profiles. The objective was to ascertain if these individuals had proximity to ByteDance employees. However, the endeavor proved fruitless in uncovering any leaks, The New York Times reported.
The investigation was prompted by a Forbes article, and while ByteDance’s inquiry corroborated parts of the report, it underscored the privacy and security concerns surrounding TikTok. These concerns have been echoed by US lawmakers, state officials, and both the Trump and Biden administrations for over two years.
Numerous states have barred TikTok from government-issued devices, and ongoing discussions between the administration and the company focus on implementing security and privacy measures to prevent potential access to US user data by ByteDance and the Chinese government, according to NYT.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is probing Douyin International, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, for allegedly expanding its social media operations unlawfully in the island nation, as reported by Voice of America (VOA).
The Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan confirmed the allegations made by a political affairs member regarding ByteDance’s establishment of a branch in Taiwan. The council accused ByteDance of business expansion and referred cases involving related entities to judicial authorities for investigation, suspecting ByteDance of violating laws that restrict Chinese firms, including social media companies, from operating offices in Taiwan.
Jade Simon
