TikTok is in big trouble in the US. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has accepted that the app was used to spy on two U.S. reporters. The company confirmed that four of its employees used the app to access IP addresses and other personal data of journalists to determine if they are near TikTok employees.
“Over the summer, four employees on the ByteDance internal audit team looked into the sharing of internal information to journalists. Two members of staff in the US and two in China gained access to the IP addresses and other personal data of FT journalist Cristina Criddle, to work out if she was in the proximity of any ByteDance employees”, the company said.
The company has already fired all four employees involved in this incident.
Forbes journalists were investigating TikTok’s links to China. To determine who were the sources of these leaks, TikTok started using the app to monitor the location of Forbes journalists to find out if they came close to any TikTok employees.
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TikTok is already under investigation by Committee for Foreign Investment (CFIUS) over its connection with CCP. This revelation can also put the future of TikTok in the US in danger. US lawmakers are already planning to put a ban on TikTok.
Back in September last year, an audio clip confirmed that everything on the app is monitored in China and there is a “master admin” who is in Beijing.
TikTok tracks users’ online behavior. It had already been accused of collecting biometric data of users back in 2021. A researcher also discovered in 2022 that the app also logs all the keystrokes.
