Chinese Communist Party has access to TikTok's US user data: Ex-ByteDance employee 

A former executive of TikTok parent ByteDance has claimed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has backdoor access to all the users’ data, including the data stored in US.

The claims were made by Yintao “Roger” Yu in a lawsuit filed on Friday in California state court for wrongful termination from his job.

Yu, who was the head of engineering for ByteDance's US offices from August 2017 to November 2018,claimed that the firm gave “supreme access” of all the data generated on the TikTok app to the CCP.

In his complaint, Yu said that he was terminated from his job after he complained to the supervisors about “brazenly unlawful conduct” at the company.

He further alleged that inside the Beijing-based company, the CCP "had a special office or unit, which was sometimes referred to as the 'Committee'."

“The Committee" didn't work for ByteDance but played a significant role," in part by "guiding how the company advanced core Communist values," the lawsuit claims.

ByteDance has termed these allegations “baseless” and said that it will contest the claims made by the former employee in the court.

“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 spokesperson said in a statement, which noted that Yu worked for the company for less than a year, reports Bloomberg.

TikTok hit with $15.9 million fine in UK: Global crackdown on Chinese app

The former employee further alleged that his former superiors dismissed his concerns when he brought their attention to the tech firm stealing copyrighted content from other platforms including Instagram and Snapchat, and manufacturing users to boost its metrics and help China’s Communist Party spread propaganda to a larger audience.

He further said that he was appalled by the “misdirection” of TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew’s March testimony before Congress to allay national security concerns about the platform’s ties to China.

“It was known within the company that a special government-controlled committee had a significant role even though it did not work for ByteDance, Yu said.

“The Committee maintained supreme access to all the company data, even data stored in the United States,” according to the suit.

“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.”

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE