TikTok , and its umbrella company ByteDance, amid disputes.
In the midst of questions about the privacy of the data it collects, a serious accusation against TikTok arises .
A former executive at ByteDance , the Chinese umbrella company for TikTok , says some members of the Communist Party of China had access to identify and locate people participating in protests in Hong Kong .
The accusation against TikTok
Everything arises in a lawsuit for the alleged unjustified dismissal of Yintao Yu, who was the company’s head of engineering in 2018.
The former top executive of ByteDance assured that Chinese Communist Party officials had a special credential or “God Mode” that allowed them to access all the data obtained by the company’s apps, including TikTok.
This was used to identify and locate activists who participated in the protests in Hong Kong. And more worrisome for TikTok’s situation , they could also access the information of users in the United States.
TikTok Responds
ByteDance responded to the AP by assuring that Yu had never raised concerns since he was fired in 2018.
According to the company, the man made the allegations to “gain media attention.”