Former ByteDance executive Yintao Yu, who was recently fired from the company, has alleged that Chinese regime officials had unrestricted access to the company’s data and data stored in the United States during his time of employment. Yu was the head of engineering for the U.S. operations of ByteDance, parent company of Chinese video app TikTok, from August 2017 to November 2018. Yu said he was terminated after he reported instances of alleged misconduct at the company to his superiors, who dismissed his concerns. Consequently, he filed a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal against ByteDance in San Francisco Superior Court on May 12, from which the allegations against the company emerged. He claims the company served as a “propaganda tool” for the Chinese Communist Party by manipulating content, as well as accusing the company of stealing content from Instagram and Snapchat.
