As if you needed another reason to delete the app right now
Video sharing platform TikTok and its parent company Bytedance are leakier than a sieve – and it has emerged that in an attempt to plug the holes, members of Bytedance’s internal audit team tracked the physical location of journalists via their IP addresses.
The idea was to check the journalists‘ proximity, through their TikTok accounts, to Bytedance staffers who could be feeding them information. Nothing came of the invasion of privacy.
Writers at the Financial Times, Forbes and a number of people close to them were targeted. Both outlets have published articles critical of TikTok based on leaked information – ranging from the firing of an exec for saying he „didn’t believe“ in maternity leave to TikTok’s ties to China and the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok spokesperson Hilary McQuaide appears to have confirmed the abuse, telling Forbes: „The misconduct of certain individuals, who are no longer employed at ByteDance, was an egregious misuse of their authority to obtain access to user data. This misbehavior is unacceptable, and not in line with our efforts across TikTok to earn the trust of our users.
