TikTok in Cahoots with ByteDance Afterall, Reports Fortune

Adding fuel to the fire of banning TikTok, former employees are alleging that TikTok was untruthful regarding the Chinese parent company’s involvement.

• A former senior data scientist was reporting to a ByteDance executive while officially assigned to an American manager.
• Despite initiatives like Project Texas aimed at separating American user data, allegations suggest continued data sharing between U.S. and Chinese operations.

Former TikTok employees are alleging the social media platform kept a closer relationship with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, than previously acknowledged.

This exposé comes at a critical time, as the U.S. government is looking at banning TikTok or forcing its sale.

According to a report by Fortune, 11 ex-TikTok employees shared details indicating that TikTok’s operations remained intertwined with ByteDance. The individuals, including data scientists and business development managers, spoke with the news outlet between August and April, revealing instances where data and management structures appeared to blur the lines between the two entities.

The situation is alarming, as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has gone on record repeatedly reiterating that the platform had cut ties with its parent company for the most part. In mid-March 2023, Chew testified at a congressional hearing that “TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made.”

Former senior data scientist at TikTok Evan Turner exposed a concealed chain of command, wherein he reported to a ByteDance executive in Beijing. However, his official assignment was to an American manager in Seattle. Turner claimed that despite reassurances of independence, he continued collaborating with ByteDance executives, sharing sensitive user data regularly.

Project Texas, which is aimed at addressing security concerns from the US government and users, has come under scrutiny. The 2022 initiative sought to separate American user data from ByteDance’s reach. However, it turns out that while the project aimed to address regulatory concerns, its effectiveness in safeguarding data remained questionable, with collaborations between U.S. and Chinese operations continuing unabated.

Turner admitted that he had shared data-filled spreadsheets with ByteDance for analytics purposes after the initiative had begun. “I literally worked on a project that gave U.S. data to China,” the former employee disclosed to Fortune. “They were completely complicit in that. There were Americans that were working in upper management that were completely complicit in this.”

The allegations also mention the internal software systems shared between TikTok and ByteDance, notably Lark, an internal messaging platform. Patrick Spaulding Ryan, who was the lead technical program manager for security engineering, alongside another albeit anonymous U.S.-based employee raised concerns that ByteDance personnel could access discussions about U.S. user data on Lark.

Another employee, Nnete Matima, worked in business development at both TikTok and ByteDance in the U.S. She sought to figure out where Lark stored user data, but she kept getting the “runaround” without ever getting a concrete answer before being fired. She recalled an instance when she lost a deal “because [she] couldn’t answer basic security questions that people are entitled to.”

To make matters worse, the allegations extend beyond data practices to include claims of discriminatory treatment and corporate censorship.

TikTok has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the claims as baseless and originating from disgruntled ex-employees.

But no matter how much TikTok wants to dismiss these allegations, they, as well as the concern, will not go away with a wave of a hand.

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