ByteDance, the parent company of popular video-sharing app TikTok, has fired four employees for accessing the data of several TikTok users located in the United States, including journalists. An investigation conducted by an outside law firm found that the employees were attempting to locate the sources of leaks to reporters. Two of the employees were based in the United States and two were based in China, where ByteDance is headquartered.
According to The New York Times, the company determined that members of a team responsible for monitoring employee conduct accessed the IP addresses and other data linked to the TikTok accounts of a reporter from BuzzFeed News and Cristina Criddle of the Financial Times. The employees are also said to have accessed the data of several people with ties to the journalists. Forbes reported that ByteDance tracked three of its reporters who previously worked for BuzzFeed News. All three of these publications have published reports on TikTok, including on its alleged ties to the Chinese government.
In October, Forbes reported that members of ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department planned to use TikTok to track the locations of specific US citizens. ByteDance refuted these claims, but the report is consistent with the results of the internal investigation. The company has restructured the Internal Audit and Risk Control department and has prevented it from accessing any US data.
The news of the investigation and the dismissal of the employees comes amid various attempts to ban TikTok in the United States. Over a dozen states, including Georgia and Texas, have blocked the app on government-owned devices. Earlier this month, a bipartisan bill sought to effectively ban TikTok from US consumer devices, along with other social apps that have ties to China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. The Senate has also passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that includes a measure that would ban TikTok on most devices issued by the federal government. There will be exceptions for elected officials, congressional staff, and law enforcement. The House is expected to vote on the omnibus bill on Thursday evening.
