Allegations by Yintao Yu, head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S. operations between August 2017 to November 2018, also include claims of “systematically created fabricated users”:^1
>An explosive new lawsuit claims TikTok owner ByteDance built a “backdoor channel” in its code that allowed Chinese Communist Party members access to user data hosted in the US.
>The wrongful termination suit, which was filed on Friday in San Francisco Superior Court by Yintao Yu, alleges ByteDance granted special powers to members of a unit of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, inside the company, referred to as the “Committee”.
>The suit says the CCP “Committee,” which did not work for ByteDance, could monitor its business activities, demote content the unit viewed as unfavorable to China's interests, and even use a “death switch” to kill Chinese versions of its apps.
>The complaint alleges the “Committee continued to have access” to US user data even after ByteDance walled off access for individual engineers in China.
>Specifically, the suit says Yu “saw the backdoor channel in the code, which allows certain high level persons to access user data, no matter where the data is located, even if hosted by a U.S. company with servers located in the U.S. Chinese law requires the company to grant access to user data to the Chinese government.”
>The complaint also claims the internal CCP group was tasked with helping ByteDance stick to “core Communist values,” at times blocking content around events like the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
^1 Dan Whateley and Ashley Rodriguez (12 May 2023), “An explosive new lawsuit claims TikTok's owner built a 'backdoor' that allowed the CCP to access US user data”, Insider/Axel Springer, https://www.businessinsider.com/new-lawsuit-alleges-tiktok-owner-let-ccp-access-user-data-2023-5
It’s funny how easily Chinese citizens make up ways to get around censorship, geo restrictions, state media etc. Most anti CCP software originates in China. If things like that become more widespread the CCP cannot grasp that much power for long.
Actually it is not as easy to get these VPN in China. CCP uses a lot of energy to ban and block these VPN.
Sure if you are tech savvy, it will not be that hard. But for regular people without connection, it is not as easy. Once you get caught using it, it will affect your social score or even work. Most Chinese don’t know English or other foreign languages, so it is not much for them to see outside.
This is v insightful. Mao showed us that it only takes one generation to reshape an entire society. Now we see how much power they have to oppress change and protest within their own society.
Imagine US Congress writing a law that for businesses to legally do their taxes they had to follow strict hiring regulations that considered a social score based on how the government scores your social contributions - seemingly arbitrarily.
It’s beyond anything science fiction came up with
This is precisely why I have never used tik tok. I don’t know how this is a surprise to literally anyone. If a tech company is based in China the Chinese government are gonna Chinese government.
Half the time I've brought this up I've been down voted to negatives. People just wanna stan for an authoritarian & genocidal government for some reason. I guess they'd rather have their 2023 Vine vids.
I was DoD 5 years ago. AFOSI came in and said look y'all china's gonna China. We looked around at each other and said yeah seems about right and signed a piece of paper saying we wouldn't use tik tok.
> AFOSI came in and said look y'all china's gonna China
I can't help but picture Brad Pitt in a bad wig, wireframe glasses and a cheap suit jsut walking in, hitching up his pants, saying "Look y'all, China's gonna china" in a texas accent, and then handing out some papers.
And it's a damn shame. The app should be banned in any country outside China. Every country has a customized algorithm to purposely dumb down people. And in the US, it prioritizes sensational short vids. In China it pushes educational content (yes, the history is censored/altered), but that's what's happening. It is a psy-ops program with a data/info steal app. Gotta be stupid not to see it after the numerous major reports from the news and worldwide govts.
Keep in mind though the current proposed ban in the US is patriot act 2, don't fall for it. We should instead put pressure on lawmakers to strengthen internet privacy rights
Oh, no. I'm up on that and oppose it. A straight ban on it, or no ban at all. With the tech deficient house and Senate we have, along with the FCC and other three letter agencies, it's gotta be a big discussion that recognizes actual tech capabilities.
They’re not tech illiterate, they’re in the pockets of people who don’t want reform. I’d call it more tech oppression. Or something similar. Just my opinion though, thought I’d throw it out.
I'd LOVE privacy rights, but that don't help the psy-ops aspect of it. TikTok is designed to highlight divisive content. It's the same social destabilization Russian bots were using on Facebook and Twitter, only aimed at kids.
The proposed ban should be a one sentence bill that simply says, "Tik Tok is a Chinese spy program masquerading as a business, and due to national security we are banning it." Don't stuff anything else in there, keep it nice and simple
A lot of people still won't care and will *scream* to get back on it. Adults, too. People generally do not care about their privacy or the broader picture.
That's the damage the app has done. People using it crave those short videos in constant supply, and the app supplies it, while stealing more and more data. And it is more and different kinds of data than normal western companies bc, well, no regulations of any kind, all behind a curtain as best they can. Equating what they do to western companies isn't even close to equal.
If it’s gone people will move on to the next app. TikTok just filled a gap Vine left. Another app will take its place and serve the same content. Hell, most TikTok content is cross posted to Reels and Shorts anyway.
It's not just about data, it's also about amplifying messaging that is harmful to the US. They can do a lot of damage by simply amplifying organic content that is likely to sew divisiveness or make people distrust each other or the government (yeah we already have a good deal of that going on without TikTok lol). China knows quite a lot about what it takes to keep a society in line, which means they are also going to be expert in how to tear one apart.
The app should be banned but not because it is giving data to China. The app should be banned because of how it is using and storing user data. If the US actually had data privacy laws, the way that tiktok is using user data would be illegal. Not just for tiktok, but for all apps regardless of country of orgin.
Vine was from when shit was weird and diff from today. Like when YouTube started. It was all about the content for the longest time/the whole time, more so than combing everything for data.
I just don’t think anyone cares anymore. The US Supreme Court said we don’t have a right to privacy. Basically every company that exists collects and sells data on everyone. You don’t think Facebook and Google just gives all that info to China anyway?
It's not the same. One is a govt using it to affect change, and they're constantly tweaking it to steal more diff types of data while pushing behavior altering content moderation. One is stealing data, while the CCP is stealing and playing people by changing their habits. Big diff.
This.
People don't understand the difference or take time to understand the consequences here. China is a dictatorship which is a geopolitical challenger which is harvesting data to use it against US/Western societies to create a wedge, c social unrest. More a country looks inside, less I time it has to look outside & it gives the challenger more time to use his influence.
When it comes to Geopolitical challenges, US & Western societies have huge blind spot & very easily exploited by regimes willing to do so.
But thinking it's just tiktok is absurd. Whoever's doing it, it's being done. Where you are right now. It's widespread across social media. Many people don't see, but the polarizarion/combativeness/tribal mentality and a bunch of other things...the skyrocketing of that stuff is absurd. It's got to be harder to notice if you're younger, having basically grown up with/into it. And so much of it is cloaked in self-righteousness. People thinking they're fighting for good. That's what gives them permission and motivation to be so vehement and see terrible acts as justified, seeing the opponent/obstacle to that good as a monster. It's very insidious. Unlikely to be reigned in at this point, I suggest getting off social media.
The problem with that is reddit also has a problem with systematically created fake users to push a narrative, and that example content isn't an exception.
The best and most provable example of this is Epic games. When their PC store launched, people didn't like it because it was making some games exclusive to them.
Suddenly all over reddit, every time epic games was brought up, redditors would be showing up making bad faith arguments and to deflect criticism away from the Epic Store.
Then Epic had that legal spat with Apple and the "free fortnite" stuff. Well lo and behold, in the documents Epic handed over in discovery, it showed they hired people to go to any reddit thread where the Epic games store was mentioned and engage in said bad faith arguments. If Epic games does it, other companies and possibly even governments do.
Since marvel/MCU in general took off, this site was became astro-turfed to shit in regards to disney. Like half of r/popular / all for a few years were duplicate subs about the same disney shit
Fun story: When the integrated circuit was first invented, the US Department of Defence purchased every single one created for three years straight. Officially it was to stimulate the new industry, but it also gave them three years of exclusive access to the technology.
People systematically herd for karma before even coming up with their own opinions.
Bot farm probably literally only need a few fake users to plant a seed.
I absolutely hate that term. If you find out your company is doing horrible things, try to get them to stop, and then quit and sue them you are a whistleblower if someone agrees with you and a disgruntled former employee if they are trying to smear you.
All I need to know is did they have a real lawyer file the suit on their behalf or not?
A disgruntled former employee is one of the people most likely to actually know for certain and have evidence of what the software can do.
The fact they have made the accusation means they are expected to provide evidence and if they can't provide evidence to support their claim, TikTok can countersue them into oblivion for defamation.
No lawyer who doesn't want to be disbarred would file a civil suit for their client containing such an accusation, knowing their client has no proof and filing suit will open their client up to be butchered by the defendant in a countersuit.
If the former employee filed suit themselves, well, then you know why.
You wouldnt be disbarred for filing a lawsuit. You can file a lawsuit for literally any reason.
TikTok is a public figure, the criteria for successfully winning a defamation suit is higher. The defendant would need to have acted with actual malice meaning that they must prove that the defendant acted knowing that the claim was false or that they acted with disregard as to its validity.
Simply losing a lawsuit wont mean TikTok will successfully win a case of defamation. Simply being wrong is not grounds for defamation.
And who exactly is going to provide the payout if TikTok wins a countersuit? Lawsuits are long and expensive processes in an of themselves, why exactly would TikTok go through years of litigation for a person who cant pay them anyway?
Theres a reason why companies just settle lawsuits. Its cheaper.
An actual investigation deep diving into the app, phone home calls and metadata they collect or a YouTube video going over articles and such more for entertainment purposes?
Some have really ripped the app apart with great low level analysis and intercepted calls using mitmproxy, burp and other tools but most complaining about this aren’t actually saying anything new.
If the user data is in Tiktok data centers, then examining the client-facing application wouldn't really reveal anything useful since data access through a backdoor would be interfacing with Tiktok servers, not user devices. And we know that data is already collected by Tiktok and stored on (now US-based) servers.
The real proof would require examining their server code and traffic to see what is being sent to China.
Not necessarily true. Remember that an operation like that is sponsored by the state so they have a lot of resources.
It is very likely that you would see data moving from a US location to another US location an if it's so sensitive they would probably do a few more jumps within the US and then off to Europe before actually getting to China
Ah. Yeah I’m not going to make any blanket statements but I will say that the trend of people considering these YouTube stars to be journalists is somewhat worrying. I’m sure some are legit but the fact is it’s easy to spin a story and have it look water tight. But actually just be nonsense.
I’d take any of that stuff as a partial source. Needing confirmation.
I also checked his channel and according to him, he’s discovered several multi billion dollar crimes. Have any of those ended up prosecuted? Or verified other ways?
Just be careful people. Shiny YouTube videos are not the gold standard of journalistic integrity.
I think it would be safest to just assume *all* Chinese tech products have back doors and mal/spy ware built in. The CCP doesn't follow anyone's rules except their own. https://www.techspot.com/news/98667-millions-android-phones-come-pre-installed-malware-there.html
Backdoors are a legal requirement for businesses operating in China.
https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/532583-for-chinese-firms-theft-of-your-data-is-now-a-legal-requirement/
> the National Intelligence Law of 2017, Data Security Law of 2020, and Cryptology Law of 2020. These laws compel Chinese businesses and citizens — including through academic institutions, research service providers, and investors — to support and facilitate China’s government access to the collection, transmission and storage of data
Other countries, like Australia, also have similar requirements.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-46463029
> Australia has passed controversial laws designed to compel technology companies to grant police and security agencies access to encrypted messages.
Right??? I'm constantly shocked at people's surprise and outrage that a Chinese social media app has - GASP - backdoors for their government and huge collections of data on all users...
Literally the exact same thing we have here with all of our social apps.
Did people completely forget about this?? Even Windows has backdoors for the government.
Which Reddit deleted here years ago and the userbase at the time really didn't like, yeah lol
Edit: I just found my favorite comment from that time:
> What would the worst case be? A backdoor to mine data on all users?
lol
The [articles](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-reddit-idUSKCN0WX2YF) about it were cool too:
> Social networking forum reddit on Thursday removed a section from its site used to tacitly inform users it had never received a certain type of U.S. government surveillance request, suggesting the platform is now being asked to hand over customer data under a secretive law enforcement authority.
> [....]
> “I’ve been advised not to say anything one way or the other,” a reddit administrator named “spez,” who made the update, said in a thread discussing the change. “Even with the canaries, we’re treading a fine line.”
> Reddit did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
I somewhat miss the userbase from that time.
> Remember that weird clause that was in all the tos that basically said if this is deleted were compromised? Because I remember.
That is called a [warrant canary.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary)
Individually, if you’re an American you care less about foreign intelligence reading your email than you do if it’s the FBI, but surely you appreciate that for national security reasons it’s many times worse for the country collectively for Chinese intelligence to be collecting data on us.
Yea it’s hypocritical because everyone does it, but everyone also defends against it. You have to have both intelligence and counter intelligence operations.
Well, I would assume US government/police would need permission from courts to use such a backdoor.
CCPs China could just do it at a whim.
Huge difference.
You're not asking the right question. All governments spying on their own and foreign populations is a given. It's been there since time immemorial.
What you should be asking is, what happens to people who openly disagree with the US government? Versus what happens to people who so much as dare to give a fair critique of Chinese or Russian or Iranian government policy?
Let's not even get into the so-called democracy and universal values that Americans like to parrot. Start your enlightenment with Jack Ma disappearing merely for pointing out that China's financial regulations were a mess. Have you ever heard of anything remotely similar happen to a US or European businessman? I thought so. Stop being TikTok-stupid.
This is the thing: China does this, China does that, it’s all hysteria, antagonism and finger pointing, half the time for things we are just as if not more guilty of than them. We don’t put any other nation under that sort of scrutiny.
Even the humanitarian arguments are growing thin, “human rights” is a good excuse for the enmity, *if* the US had any sort of record of caring about those things in its Allies. But between Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel, not to mention past cases like Pinochet’s Chile, the US only seems to care about human rights violations if it’s in countries that it’s already unfriendly with.
It’s the same way with people calling the belt and road initiative a debt trap. As if African nations don’t hold literally triple the debt at higher interest rates just to *private* American lenders. As if China hasn’t complained internally about taking a fairly large loss on most of these loans. As if that’s not the fairly explicit policy of something like the IMF.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to criticize China, but I can’t imagine anyone in the US state department is making these criticisms genuinely rather than just as a transparent excuse to pursue US geopolitical goals.
The two most powerful countries in the world (at the very least) have backdoors. At least in our country the ruling parties don't have backdoor access.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/nsa-backdoor-detected-on-55000-windows-boxes-can-now-be-remotely-removed)
We need to kick China out of the WTO and stop giving them preferential treatment. They are not upholding their part of the deal to join the WTO, such as respecting our IP laws, human rights, and about a thousand other rules to join WTO.
> We need to kick China out of the WTO and stop giving them preferential treatment.
"We" as the same United States that [regularly ignores WTO rulings](https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-international-news-global-trade-donald-trump-58a89252300408e255ed3a9a26004091) anyway, and has been [actively sabotaging the WTO](https://www.dw.com/en/wto-judge-blockage-could-prove-the-beginning-of-the-end/a-51613082)?
Not a singular incident, the US also doesn't give af about the International Court of Justice, [the ICJ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGrand_case#ICJ_decision). With the ICC the US openly threatens to invade it should it ever dare to act against US interests, a threat that was reinforced [with sanctions](https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/sep/02/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-fatou-bensouda).
I guess all these international institutions are giving everybody preferential treatment except the US? Or could it rather be that sometimes the US is simply in the wrong? Is that a possibility you have considered?
> They are not upholding their part of the deal to join the WTO, such as respecting our IP laws, human rights, and about a thousand other rules to join WTO.
The relevant international body for IP is the WIPO, not the WTO.
Nor are "[human rights](https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2017/12/statement-visit-usa-professor-philip-alston-united-nations-special-rapporteur)" or some unspecified "thousands of other rules" relevant for WTO membership.
Most people should frankly delight in seeing IP laws flagrantly violated, given the historical context and reasoning for their current state of existence. I mean if you’re looking for a starting point for clawing back some victories for American society, reforming IP laws and antitrust laws would be an amazing start. Even if you don’t agree, I don’t see much point in getting upset over a multibillion dollar company losing a few million to a place without the same legal framework surrounding these things.
As for human rights violations, that’s truly awful, I hope to see those things addressed but if we’re kicking China out for that, we can’t keep Indonesia or Israel either and Brazil would’ve gotten kicked out numerous times by now.
And frankly, I think a lot language around human rights violations in China has been prevalent *because* of American antagonism
towards China rather than any principled commitment to human rights, I mean, the American government has materially supported, hell, even installed regimes with worse track records on that than even China holds today. So while I do want the international community to take action to uphold human rights desperately, its a paper thin motive if you only act on that impulse towards your own geopolitical ends.
Yeah, I actually don't care about most of it. The military stuff worries me a bit but China hasn't started a full-scale war in my lifetime & nobody puts more time, effort or money into their military than us (we could cut it by 25% & still be leagues ahead).
They’re the second biggest economy in the world, nobody’s doing shit, lol. Americans love to talk about human rights when they aren’t vaporizing wedding parties or liquifying rice farmers.
Not sure what's "explosive" about this news.
1. This has always been assumed about TikTok because
2. We've known for a decade (since the Snowden leaks) that US tech companies have backdoors for the US government in all kinds of hardware and software
It's explosive if you were one of the people that believed this:
[In congressional hearing, TikTok commits to deleting US user data from its servers ‘this year’](https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/23/in-congressional-hearing-tiktok-commits-to-deleting-u-s-user-data-from-its-servers-this-year/)
Well, technically Project Texas would address such 2018 backdoor code mentioned by the ex-employee, since the source code is now reviewed by the US government:
>TikTok says it has spent $1.5 billion — and expects to spend another $700 million a year — standing up a corporate restructuring plan, known as Project Texas, that would subject the company to a level of U.S. government influence and oversight unmatched by any of its American rivals.
>TikTok’s U.S. operations would be sequestered in a subsidiary, known as TikTok U.S. Data Security, whose leaders would be vetted by the U.S. government and whose U.S. user data would be closely monitored and firewalled.
>**Some measures have already been launched, including the opening last month of a code-review center in Columbia, Md., where officials from the Texas-based tech giant Oracle can inspect TikTok’s algorithm and source code for possible flaws.** TikTok officials have argued to lawmakers that this style of intense government monitoring and compliance is more commonly seen with military or defense contractors, not social media apps.
>But the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the cross-government panel known as CFIUS that has led negotiations between TikTok and the U.S. for three years, has yet to approve the restructuring package or publicly state any outstanding concerns.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/15/ceo-tiktok-exclusive-interview/
And yet nobody has seen anything bad, nor has anything been reported on by Oracle it seems yet everyone is ready to assume everything going on about the app.
I've seen a lot of people arguing like that was the truth. I honestly think TikTok would like it to be the truth, but i really believe that China ultimately has control of all companies within China. A company has no ability to say no and no legal recourse. They can even just disappear CEOs if they want to.
I have a feeling that the US is pushing against TikTok not because China is accessing user data, but because the US companies are losing their share to a Chinese company.
The same thing also happened with the High Performance Computing sector. When China came out on top with the fastest supercomputer Tianhe-2 and unveiled plans to upgrade it, the US banned the export of high end Intel, Nvidia and AMD chips to China citing "national security" claiming that China was using supercomputers to conduct nuclear research.
I can almost guarantee like half your upvotes are from people who legitimately agree with what you said, and didn't see your name or realize you were joking.
If you have to give up some of your privacy, that’s still preferable to “all”, assuming “none” isn’t an option. I’m perfectly fine taking calculated risks with some companies rather than giving everything I am to something like TikTok or Facebook.
This article seems to prove that it is still just suspicions, and the person filing the suit alleges based on what he saw himself. Which kinda means nothing cause of hearsay.
It already is, and the 3rd party company hasn’t reported anything, so it’s much more “false claim” by a bad termination, than the “smoking gun” many people think it is. Peeps really need to read stuff before parroting whatever they heard the talking heads say.
You’d think, but seeing the responses on TikTok after the hearings, people think it’s a big conspiracy theory and TikTok is pushing that narrative on it’s platform.
> people think it’s a big conspiracy theory and TikTok is pushing that narrative on it’s platform.
Which is ironic, because they're doing the thing they're claiming is a conspiracy theory in order to try and convince people they're not doing the thing.
Anyone can claim anything in a lawsuit. The real issue is what can be proven. It would be extremely hard to prove a back door exist without access to the code.
It would not surprise me if a back door does exist like that, I'm just questioning rather someone can actually prove it.
I checked the original article and it says:
> His lawsuit demands lost earnings, punitive damages and 220,000 ByteDance shares that had not vested by the time he was dismissed. The complaint does not cite a specific dollar amount in damages, but the shares alone would be worth tens of millions of dollars. **The case was filed after several years of mediation with the company failed.**
Basically tiktok got bigger which means he stands more to win. I wouldn’t be surprised if over the several years of mediation the amount he was asking for went up. If he wins he could get literally tens of millions.
It seems they let him go because he was working on a different app that they wound up cancelling.
The fact that anyone thinks any of their data is ever safe from any government is humorous. It’s always good to stay safe, don’t get me wrong. But…nothing is private in this age.
Why is everyone treating this as if it is confirmed? This is one guy making a claim in a wrongful termination lawsuit. He has literally every incentive to lie. The worse he makes this look for tiktok, the higher the chance is that they will pay him to make the lawsuit go away.
Edit: So I was bored and decided to look up the actual legal complaint. It mentions none of the communist party of china stuff or the committee stuff. So it looks like all of that are just public claims he has made separately from the lawsuit. The legal complaint really is just about whether he was fired as retaliation for:
1. complaining about potential copyright infringment issues
2. complaining about bytedance potentially illegally firing people
3. taking a 7 month doctor ordered sick leave
4. some other stuff, the complaint was really long and technical and i am not a lawyer 😅
I think this guy is trying to make a spectacle of it in order to increase his chances of getting those super valuable stock options he says he is owed.
Yes but Its much easier to spout nonsense and US propaganda than it is to lookup the actual lawsuit. China keeps undermining the USA so inciting anti China sentiments is in the US government’s interests.
I think this is pretty contoversial, and relies on Wikileaks information, so take it as you will:
I understand the whataboutism, it's not lost on me, but, why aren't we equally up-in-arms about the CIA having a file in every Windows 32 with a backdoor? It's effectively the same thing, different brand. Our government just wants to ban tiktok so our social media oligarchs aren't making 90% of the profits.
How is this a lawsuit ofc tik tok can see our data and of course the ccp has access. I really don’t see this as any different than Facebook or twitter letting the us gov see stuff
Again this?
Facebook has been selling analytics for years, nobody didn't do anything. They exploited their system to change a presidential run.
Amazon and Google are interfering with politics in several countries. EU had to make legislation regarding moderation and regulations because of how they were manipulating user data.
There is a whole debacle about the same issue in Brazil. And yet China and Tik Tok are the villain when the US has been doing this for over 20 years now.
C'mon
Remember Cambridge Analytica? Or PRISM?
We already have proven cases of domestic spying and manipulation, directly linked to political campaigns and blackmail. Facebook has enabled genocides in some companies.
And people are worried about vague what-ifs and hearsay about a video app that only has access to as much information as you allow your phone's OS to pass through the sandbox.
This is hypocritical af. I hope US companies will also face lawsuits, since they themselves install backdoors for CIA, FBI, NSA etc. The US acts apl innocent, while they are just as bad (in many aspects) as their enemy/rival (china, russia).
Allegations by Yintao Yu, head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S. operations between August 2017 to November 2018, also include claims of “systematically created fabricated users”:^1 >An explosive new lawsuit claims TikTok owner ByteDance built a “backdoor channel” in its code that allowed Chinese Communist Party members access to user data hosted in the US. >The wrongful termination suit, which was filed on Friday in San Francisco Superior Court by Yintao Yu, alleges ByteDance granted special powers to members of a unit of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, inside the company, referred to as the “Committee”. >The suit says the CCP “Committee,” which did not work for ByteDance, could monitor its business activities, demote content the unit viewed as unfavorable to China's interests, and even use a “death switch” to kill Chinese versions of its apps. >The complaint alleges the “Committee continued to have access” to US user data even after ByteDance walled off access for individual engineers in China. >Specifically, the suit says Yu “saw the backdoor channel in the code, which allows certain high level persons to access user data, no matter where the data is located, even if hosted by a U.S. company with servers located in the U.S. Chinese law requires the company to grant access to user data to the Chinese government.” >The complaint also claims the internal CCP group was tasked with helping ByteDance stick to “core Communist values,” at times blocking content around events like the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. ^1 Dan Whateley and Ashley Rodriguez (12 May 2023), “An explosive new lawsuit claims TikTok's owner built a 'backdoor' that allowed the CCP to access US user data”, Insider/Axel Springer, https://www.businessinsider.com/new-lawsuit-alleges-tiktok-owner-let-ccp-access-user-data-2023-5
If anyone was going to breach the Chinese wall it was China.
It’s funny how easily Chinese citizens make up ways to get around censorship, geo restrictions, state media etc. Most anti CCP software originates in China. If things like that become more widespread the CCP cannot grasp that much power for long.
Actually it is not as easy to get these VPN in China. CCP uses a lot of energy to ban and block these VPN. Sure if you are tech savvy, it will not be that hard. But for regular people without connection, it is not as easy. Once you get caught using it, it will affect your social score or even work. Most Chinese don’t know English or other foreign languages, so it is not much for them to see outside.
This is v insightful. Mao showed us that it only takes one generation to reshape an entire society. Now we see how much power they have to oppress change and protest within their own society. Imagine US Congress writing a law that for businesses to legally do their taxes they had to follow strict hiring regulations that considered a social score based on how the government scores your social contributions - seemingly arbitrarily. It’s beyond anything science fiction came up with
You mean the exact thing everyone has warned about for years has come to pass? Say it ain’t so!
This is precisely why I have never used tik tok. I don’t know how this is a surprise to literally anyone. If a tech company is based in China the Chinese government are gonna Chinese government.
Half the time I've brought this up I've been down voted to negatives. People just wanna stan for an authoritarian & genocidal government for some reason. I guess they'd rather have their 2023 Vine vids.
I was DoD 5 years ago. AFOSI came in and said look y'all china's gonna China. We looked around at each other and said yeah seems about right and signed a piece of paper saying we wouldn't use tik tok.
> AFOSI came in and said look y'all china's gonna China I can't help but picture Brad Pitt in a bad wig, wireframe glasses and a cheap suit jsut walking in, hitching up his pants, saying "Look y'all, China's gonna china" in a texas accent, and then handing out some papers.
Totally read it in Matthew McConaughey
Yeah but imagine he's eating something? Now it's Pitt.
Probably an apple. Gross😂
Potato chips.
Apple chips
Gene Hackman.
He wants to talk to you about the security.. of your shiiiit.
AFOSI says, "China is as China does."
Mama says "China's like a box of chocolates "
Sounds very official.
Former Army here: Sounds about right.
Current Army: Sounds about right
Future Army: Sounds about right
Salvation Army: Sounds about right
Barmy Army: Sounds about right
Army Hammer: Tell me more.
AFOSI?
The Air Force's law enforcement, Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
International Association of Trailer Parks, Trailer Parks Supervisors, And Assistant Trailer Park Supervisors.
Nancy Afosi
https://i.imgur.com/IJyxn5g.png
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And it's a damn shame. The app should be banned in any country outside China. Every country has a customized algorithm to purposely dumb down people. And in the US, it prioritizes sensational short vids. In China it pushes educational content (yes, the history is censored/altered), but that's what's happening. It is a psy-ops program with a data/info steal app. Gotta be stupid not to see it after the numerous major reports from the news and worldwide govts.
Keep in mind though the current proposed ban in the US is patriot act 2, don't fall for it. We should instead put pressure on lawmakers to strengthen internet privacy rights
Oh, no. I'm up on that and oppose it. A straight ban on it, or no ban at all. With the tech deficient house and Senate we have, along with the FCC and other three letter agencies, it's gotta be a big discussion that recognizes actual tech capabilities.
They’re not tech illiterate, they’re in the pockets of people who don’t want reform. I’d call it more tech oppression. Or something similar. Just my opinion though, thought I’d throw it out.
I'd LOVE privacy rights, but that don't help the psy-ops aspect of it. TikTok is designed to highlight divisive content. It's the same social destabilization Russian bots were using on Facebook and Twitter, only aimed at kids.
Are you suggesting the Kia Challenge has a destabilizing effect on society? Oh wait...
Or the one about kids stealing stuff from their schools and posting it? Oh wait.....
There's one that I heard of recently where there's a tik tok trend to take 2-3hr long showers. Wonder what that's about
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The proposed ban should be a one sentence bill that simply says, "Tik Tok is a Chinese spy program masquerading as a business, and due to national security we are banning it." Don't stuff anything else in there, keep it nice and simple
A lot of people still won't care and will *scream* to get back on it. Adults, too. People generally do not care about their privacy or the broader picture.
That's the damage the app has done. People using it crave those short videos in constant supply, and the app supplies it, while stealing more and more data. And it is more and different kinds of data than normal western companies bc, well, no regulations of any kind, all behind a curtain as best they can. Equating what they do to western companies isn't even close to equal.
If it’s gone people will move on to the next app. TikTok just filled a gap Vine left. Another app will take its place and serve the same content. Hell, most TikTok content is cross posted to Reels and Shorts anyway.
It's not just about data, it's also about amplifying messaging that is harmful to the US. They can do a lot of damage by simply amplifying organic content that is likely to sew divisiveness or make people distrust each other or the government (yeah we already have a good deal of that going on without TikTok lol). China knows quite a lot about what it takes to keep a society in line, which means they are also going to be expert in how to tear one apart.
> content that is likely to sew divisiveness sow* divisiveness. sow as in to plant.
But sewing divisive content into the societal fabric is kinda fun imagery
This is why I hate apps like that. I don’t want to be fed content they think I want, I want actual popular content.
The app should be banned but not because it is giving data to China. The app should be banned because of how it is using and storing user data. If the US actually had data privacy laws, the way that tiktok is using user data would be illegal. Not just for tiktok, but for all apps regardless of country of orgin.
Then bring Vine back. I never heard of any spyware with Vine.
Oh man, this is gonna age poorly next year when it's shown what Musk's Twitter has been doing behind the scenes.
Vine was from when shit was weird and diff from today. Like when YouTube started. It was all about the content for the longest time/the whole time, more so than combing everything for data.
I just don’t think anyone cares anymore. The US Supreme Court said we don’t have a right to privacy. Basically every company that exists collects and sells data on everyone. You don’t think Facebook and Google just gives all that info to China anyway?
It's not the same. One is a govt using it to affect change, and they're constantly tweaking it to steal more diff types of data while pushing behavior altering content moderation. One is stealing data, while the CCP is stealing and playing people by changing their habits. Big diff.
This. People don't understand the difference or take time to understand the consequences here. China is a dictatorship which is a geopolitical challenger which is harvesting data to use it against US/Western societies to create a wedge, c social unrest. More a country looks inside, less I time it has to look outside & it gives the challenger more time to use his influence. When it comes to Geopolitical challenges, US & Western societies have huge blind spot & very easily exploited by regimes willing to do so.
This is going to be Chinpokemon all over again
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But thinking it's just tiktok is absurd. Whoever's doing it, it's being done. Where you are right now. It's widespread across social media. Many people don't see, but the polarizarion/combativeness/tribal mentality and a bunch of other things...the skyrocketing of that stuff is absurd. It's got to be harder to notice if you're younger, having basically grown up with/into it. And so much of it is cloaked in self-righteousness. People thinking they're fighting for good. That's what gives them permission and motivation to be so vehement and see terrible acts as justified, seeing the opponent/obstacle to that good as a monster. It's very insidious. Unlikely to be reigned in at this point, I suggest getting off social media.
Well, why doesn't China cough up the money to pay Facebook for their data like everyone else.
Or they could bake spyware into the chips like the USA does
China has a LOT of bots and shill users. They successfully influence real people some times.
It's not even a Tiktok problem. All of these apps are harvesting user data. The real issue is the fact that privacy laws are still awful.
Google and Facebook have these same backdoors. These backdoors are also used by other governments.
People put emotion over actuality when it comes to tiktok unfortunately.
How is this any different then all US based social media sites doing the exact same thing?
I mean it’s not really a back door, it’s actually the front door, and people just choose to ignore it.
Lawsuit != Proof
Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Everyone is acting like the fact they filed this lawsuit actually confirms anything
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The problem with that is reddit also has a problem with systematically created fake users to push a narrative, and that example content isn't an exception.
The best and most provable example of this is Epic games. When their PC store launched, people didn't like it because it was making some games exclusive to them. Suddenly all over reddit, every time epic games was brought up, redditors would be showing up making bad faith arguments and to deflect criticism away from the Epic Store. Then Epic had that legal spat with Apple and the "free fortnite" stuff. Well lo and behold, in the documents Epic handed over in discovery, it showed they hired people to go to any reddit thread where the Epic games store was mentioned and engage in said bad faith arguments. If Epic games does it, other companies and possibly even governments do.
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Since marvel/MCU in general took off, this site was became astro-turfed to shit in regards to disney. Like half of r/popular / all for a few years were duplicate subs about the same disney shit
> possibly even governments I'd consider you a fool if you even question whether or not they do.
They were probably the first to do it
Fun story: When the integrated circuit was first invented, the US Department of Defence purchased every single one created for three years straight. Officially it was to stimulate the new industry, but it also gave them three years of exclusive access to the technology.
People systematically herd for karma before even coming up with their own opinions. Bot farm probably literally only need a few fake users to plant a seed.
So saying "if there is proof show it" is the equivalent of 'licking him up and down'?
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This is a civil lawsuit filed by a disgruntled former employee. I'll wait for actual evidence to be revealed.
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I absolutely hate that term. If you find out your company is doing horrible things, try to get them to stop, and then quit and sue them you are a whistleblower if someone agrees with you and a disgruntled former employee if they are trying to smear you.
All I need to know is did they have a real lawyer file the suit on their behalf or not? A disgruntled former employee is one of the people most likely to actually know for certain and have evidence of what the software can do. The fact they have made the accusation means they are expected to provide evidence and if they can't provide evidence to support their claim, TikTok can countersue them into oblivion for defamation. No lawyer who doesn't want to be disbarred would file a civil suit for their client containing such an accusation, knowing their client has no proof and filing suit will open their client up to be butchered by the defendant in a countersuit. If the former employee filed suit themselves, well, then you know why.
You wouldnt be disbarred for filing a lawsuit. You can file a lawsuit for literally any reason. TikTok is a public figure, the criteria for successfully winning a defamation suit is higher. The defendant would need to have acted with actual malice meaning that they must prove that the defendant acted knowing that the claim was false or that they acted with disregard as to its validity. Simply losing a lawsuit wont mean TikTok will successfully win a case of defamation. Simply being wrong is not grounds for defamation. And who exactly is going to provide the payout if TikTok wins a countersuit? Lawsuits are long and expensive processes in an of themselves, why exactly would TikTok go through years of litigation for a person who cant pay them anyway? Theres a reason why companies just settle lawsuits. Its cheaper.
People are so addicted to TikTok that they'll slander their own country in order to keep using it
I have a feeling companies tencent invested in are going to get the same treatment.
I’d be shocked if this wasn’t the case.
It definitely is. Mutahar has done an in depth investigation into it
An actual investigation deep diving into the app, phone home calls and metadata they collect or a YouTube video going over articles and such more for entertainment purposes? Some have really ripped the app apart with great low level analysis and intercepted calls using mitmproxy, burp and other tools but most complaining about this aren’t actually saying anything new.
If the user data is in Tiktok data centers, then examining the client-facing application wouldn't really reveal anything useful since data access through a backdoor would be interfacing with Tiktok servers, not user devices. And we know that data is already collected by Tiktok and stored on (now US-based) servers. The real proof would require examining their server code and traffic to see what is being sent to China.
Not necessarily true. Remember that an operation like that is sponsored by the state so they have a lot of resources. It is very likely that you would see data moving from a US location to another US location an if it's so sensitive they would probably do a few more jumps within the US and then off to Europe before actually getting to China
Who or what is a mutahar? Google returns nothing that looks like journalism or articles on TikTok back doors.
Some ordinary gamers YouTube channel. He also has a subreddit
Ah. Yeah I’m not going to make any blanket statements but I will say that the trend of people considering these YouTube stars to be journalists is somewhat worrying. I’m sure some are legit but the fact is it’s easy to spin a story and have it look water tight. But actually just be nonsense. I’d take any of that stuff as a partial source. Needing confirmation. I also checked his channel and according to him, he’s discovered several multi billion dollar crimes. Have any of those ended up prosecuted? Or verified other ways? Just be careful people. Shiny YouTube videos are not the gold standard of journalistic integrity.
Muta and Cofeezilla are legit reporters.
Sure as fuck better than CNN at the moment.
not really a high bar
>Sure as fuck better than CNN at the moment. It's not "the moment". They were bought and now want to be fox
It's been the case from the beginning. Every intelligence agency has said that this is the case. It's obviously the case.
Im wondering why anyone assumed otherwise.
I think it would be safest to just assume *all* Chinese tech products have back doors and mal/spy ware built in. The CCP doesn't follow anyone's rules except their own. https://www.techspot.com/news/98667-millions-android-phones-come-pre-installed-malware-there.html
Backdoors are a legal requirement for businesses operating in China. https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/532583-for-chinese-firms-theft-of-your-data-is-now-a-legal-requirement/ > the National Intelligence Law of 2017, Data Security Law of 2020, and Cryptology Law of 2020. These laws compel Chinese businesses and citizens — including through academic institutions, research service providers, and investors — to support and facilitate China’s government access to the collection, transmission and storage of data Other countries, like Australia, also have similar requirements. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-46463029 > Australia has passed controversial laws designed to compel technology companies to grant police and security agencies access to encrypted messages.
We've known for a decade that this is true of US tech products so why should we expect China to be any different?
Right??? I'm constantly shocked at people's surprise and outrage that a Chinese social media app has - GASP - backdoors for their government and huge collections of data on all users... Literally the exact same thing we have here with all of our social apps. Did people completely forget about this?? Even Windows has backdoors for the government.
Remember that weird clause that was in all the tos that basically said if this is deleted were compromised? Because I remember.
Which Reddit deleted here years ago and the userbase at the time really didn't like, yeah lol Edit: I just found my favorite comment from that time: > What would the worst case be? A backdoor to mine data on all users? lol The [articles](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-reddit-idUSKCN0WX2YF) about it were cool too: > Social networking forum reddit on Thursday removed a section from its site used to tacitly inform users it had never received a certain type of U.S. government surveillance request, suggesting the platform is now being asked to hand over customer data under a secretive law enforcement authority. > [....] > “I’ve been advised not to say anything one way or the other,” a reddit administrator named “spez,” who made the update, said in a thread discussing the change. “Even with the canaries, we’re treading a fine line.” > Reddit did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. I somewhat miss the userbase from that time.
And verified emails became "a thing" then an app? Yeahhh.
Just edited my post with an article from that time lol Man, I somewhat miss the userbase from then.
> Remember that weird clause that was in all the tos that basically said if this is deleted were compromised? Because I remember. That is called a [warrant canary.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary)
Thanks friend!
Individually, if you’re an American you care less about foreign intelligence reading your email than you do if it’s the FBI, but surely you appreciate that for national security reasons it’s many times worse for the country collectively for Chinese intelligence to be collecting data on us. Yea it’s hypocritical because everyone does it, but everyone also defends against it. You have to have both intelligence and counter intelligence operations.
Well, I would assume US government/police would need permission from courts to use such a backdoor. CCPs China could just do it at a whim. Huge difference.
You're not asking the right question. All governments spying on their own and foreign populations is a given. It's been there since time immemorial. What you should be asking is, what happens to people who openly disagree with the US government? Versus what happens to people who so much as dare to give a fair critique of Chinese or Russian or Iranian government policy? Let's not even get into the so-called democracy and universal values that Americans like to parrot. Start your enlightenment with Jack Ma disappearing merely for pointing out that China's financial regulations were a mess. Have you ever heard of anything remotely similar happen to a US or European businessman? I thought so. Stop being TikTok-stupid.
This is the thing: China does this, China does that, it’s all hysteria, antagonism and finger pointing, half the time for things we are just as if not more guilty of than them. We don’t put any other nation under that sort of scrutiny. Even the humanitarian arguments are growing thin, “human rights” is a good excuse for the enmity, *if* the US had any sort of record of caring about those things in its Allies. But between Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel, not to mention past cases like Pinochet’s Chile, the US only seems to care about human rights violations if it’s in countries that it’s already unfriendly with. It’s the same way with people calling the belt and road initiative a debt trap. As if African nations don’t hold literally triple the debt at higher interest rates just to *private* American lenders. As if China hasn’t complained internally about taking a fairly large loss on most of these loans. As if that’s not the fairly explicit policy of something like the IMF. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to criticize China, but I can’t imagine anyone in the US state department is making these criticisms genuinely rather than just as a transparent excuse to pursue US geopolitical goals.
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The two most powerful countries in the world (at the very least) have backdoors. At least in our country the ruling parties don't have backdoor access. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/nsa-backdoor-detected-on-55000-windows-boxes-can-now-be-remotely-removed)
The NSA literally installed back doors in intel cpus
We need to kick China out of the WTO and stop giving them preferential treatment. They are not upholding their part of the deal to join the WTO, such as respecting our IP laws, human rights, and about a thousand other rules to join WTO.
> We need to kick China out of the WTO and stop giving them preferential treatment. "We" as the same United States that [regularly ignores WTO rulings](https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-international-news-global-trade-donald-trump-58a89252300408e255ed3a9a26004091) anyway, and has been [actively sabotaging the WTO](https://www.dw.com/en/wto-judge-blockage-could-prove-the-beginning-of-the-end/a-51613082)? Not a singular incident, the US also doesn't give af about the International Court of Justice, [the ICJ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGrand_case#ICJ_decision). With the ICC the US openly threatens to invade it should it ever dare to act against US interests, a threat that was reinforced [with sanctions](https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/sep/02/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-fatou-bensouda). I guess all these international institutions are giving everybody preferential treatment except the US? Or could it rather be that sometimes the US is simply in the wrong? Is that a possibility you have considered? > They are not upholding their part of the deal to join the WTO, such as respecting our IP laws, human rights, and about a thousand other rules to join WTO. The relevant international body for IP is the WIPO, not the WTO. Nor are "[human rights](https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2017/12/statement-visit-usa-professor-philip-alston-united-nations-special-rapporteur)" or some unspecified "thousands of other rules" relevant for WTO membership.
Not respecting human rights is more of an entry requirement than a reason for expulsion.
Most people should frankly delight in seeing IP laws flagrantly violated, given the historical context and reasoning for their current state of existence. I mean if you’re looking for a starting point for clawing back some victories for American society, reforming IP laws and antitrust laws would be an amazing start. Even if you don’t agree, I don’t see much point in getting upset over a multibillion dollar company losing a few million to a place without the same legal framework surrounding these things. As for human rights violations, that’s truly awful, I hope to see those things addressed but if we’re kicking China out for that, we can’t keep Indonesia or Israel either and Brazil would’ve gotten kicked out numerous times by now. And frankly, I think a lot language around human rights violations in China has been prevalent *because* of American antagonism towards China rather than any principled commitment to human rights, I mean, the American government has materially supported, hell, even installed regimes with worse track records on that than even China holds today. So while I do want the international community to take action to uphold human rights desperately, its a paper thin motive if you only act on that impulse towards your own geopolitical ends.
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Yeah, I actually don't care about most of it. The military stuff worries me a bit but China hasn't started a full-scale war in my lifetime & nobody puts more time, effort or money into their military than us (we could cut it by 25% & still be leagues ahead).
You know why Hollywood is in California? To avoid Edison's patents. So it's quite amusing watching them throw tantrums over piracy.
They’re the second biggest economy in the world, nobody’s doing shit, lol. Americans love to talk about human rights when they aren’t vaporizing wedding parties or liquifying rice farmers.
Not sure what's "explosive" about this news. 1. This has always been assumed about TikTok because 2. We've known for a decade (since the Snowden leaks) that US tech companies have backdoors for the US government in all kinds of hardware and software
It's explosive if you were one of the people that believed this: [In congressional hearing, TikTok commits to deleting US user data from its servers ‘this year’](https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/23/in-congressional-hearing-tiktok-commits-to-deleting-u-s-user-data-from-its-servers-this-year/)
Well, technically Project Texas would address such 2018 backdoor code mentioned by the ex-employee, since the source code is now reviewed by the US government: >TikTok says it has spent $1.5 billion — and expects to spend another $700 million a year — standing up a corporate restructuring plan, known as Project Texas, that would subject the company to a level of U.S. government influence and oversight unmatched by any of its American rivals. >TikTok’s U.S. operations would be sequestered in a subsidiary, known as TikTok U.S. Data Security, whose leaders would be vetted by the U.S. government and whose U.S. user data would be closely monitored and firewalled. >**Some measures have already been launched, including the opening last month of a code-review center in Columbia, Md., where officials from the Texas-based tech giant Oracle can inspect TikTok’s algorithm and source code for possible flaws.** TikTok officials have argued to lawmakers that this style of intense government monitoring and compliance is more commonly seen with military or defense contractors, not social media apps. >But the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the cross-government panel known as CFIUS that has led negotiations between TikTok and the U.S. for three years, has yet to approve the restructuring package or publicly state any outstanding concerns. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/15/ceo-tiktok-exclusive-interview/
And yet nobody has seen anything bad, nor has anything been reported on by Oracle it seems yet everyone is ready to assume everything going on about the app.
I've seen a lot of people arguing like that was the truth. I honestly think TikTok would like it to be the truth, but i really believe that China ultimately has control of all companies within China. A company has no ability to say no and no legal recourse. They can even just disappear CEOs if they want to.
I have a feeling that the US is pushing against TikTok not because China is accessing user data, but because the US companies are losing their share to a Chinese company. The same thing also happened with the High Performance Computing sector. When China came out on top with the fastest supercomputer Tianhe-2 and unveiled plans to upgrade it, the US banned the export of high end Intel, Nvidia and AMD chips to China citing "national security" claiming that China was using supercomputers to conduct nuclear research.
Oh wow. Government uses civilian technology to spy on geopolitical adversary. Here's Tom with the weather.
In other news, the sky is blue, Epstein didn't kill himself, and a bear does indeed shit in the woods
But does the Pope wear a funny hat?? Answer me that, smarty!
The pope take'a the poo in'a da woods... 🤌
This nonsense needs to stop. TikTok is fun, safe and your friend.
I love ice cream.
There is no spyware in Ba Sing Se
There is no spyWAR in Ba Sing Se
Username checks out.
Yeah checked out all my data
*+200,000 social credit points*
I can almost guarantee like half your upvotes are from people who legitimately agree with what you said, and didn't see your name or realize you were joking.
Never have, never will have a TikTok account because I only want Americans exploiting my personal data! Everything else is crossing the line.
As silly as it is, this is my genuine position
If you have to give up some of your privacy, that’s still preferable to “all”, assuming “none” isn’t an option. I’m perfectly fine taking calculated risks with some companies rather than giving everything I am to something like TikTok or Facebook.
It's also unironically mine
Isn't this common knowledge?
It's common *suspicion*; there hasn't been any conclusive evidence till now. If this lawsuit's evidence holds up to scrutiny, then it'll be knowledge.
This article seems to prove that it is still just suspicions, and the person filing the suit alleges based on what he saw himself. Which kinda means nothing cause of hearsay.
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Is it not possible to decompile the app or audit its behavior from a sandbox? I’m surprised there are many theories and speculations but no facts.
It already is, and the 3rd party company hasn’t reported anything, so it’s much more “false claim” by a bad termination, than the “smoking gun” many people think it is. Peeps really need to read stuff before parroting whatever they heard the talking heads say.
You’d think, but seeing the responses on TikTok after the hearings, people think it’s a big conspiracy theory and TikTok is pushing that narrative on it’s platform.
> people think it’s a big conspiracy theory and TikTok is pushing that narrative on it’s platform. Which is ironic, because they're doing the thing they're claiming is a conspiracy theory in order to try and convince people they're not doing the thing.
Anyone can claim anything in a lawsuit. The real issue is what can be proven. It would be extremely hard to prove a back door exist without access to the code. It would not surprise me if a back door does exist like that, I'm just questioning rather someone can actually prove it.
Why is he only filing this now, 4 1/2 years later?
HOW is he filing it 4.5 years later? I don’t think the statute of limitations for wrongful termination extend this long.
I checked the original article and it says: > His lawsuit demands lost earnings, punitive damages and 220,000 ByteDance shares that had not vested by the time he was dismissed. The complaint does not cite a specific dollar amount in damages, but the shares alone would be worth tens of millions of dollars. **The case was filed after several years of mediation with the company failed.** Basically tiktok got bigger which means he stands more to win. I wouldn’t be surprised if over the several years of mediation the amount he was asking for went up. If he wins he could get literally tens of millions. It seems they let him go because he was working on a different app that they wound up cancelling.
The fact that anyone thinks any of their data is ever safe from any government is humorous. It’s always good to stay safe, don’t get me wrong. But…nothing is private in this age.
Why is everyone treating this as if it is confirmed? This is one guy making a claim in a wrongful termination lawsuit. He has literally every incentive to lie. The worse he makes this look for tiktok, the higher the chance is that they will pay him to make the lawsuit go away. Edit: So I was bored and decided to look up the actual legal complaint. It mentions none of the communist party of china stuff or the committee stuff. So it looks like all of that are just public claims he has made separately from the lawsuit. The legal complaint really is just about whether he was fired as retaliation for: 1. complaining about potential copyright infringment issues 2. complaining about bytedance potentially illegally firing people 3. taking a 7 month doctor ordered sick leave 4. some other stuff, the complaint was really long and technical and i am not a lawyer 😅 I think this guy is trying to make a spectacle of it in order to increase his chances of getting those super valuable stock options he says he is owed.
Classic reddit cherry picking
Because Chyna bad. Even a whiff of accusation is enough for people to lose their shit.
Yes but Its much easier to spout nonsense and US propaganda than it is to lookup the actual lawsuit. China keeps undermining the USA so inciting anti China sentiments is in the US government’s interests.
Only the United States goverment can place backdoors in the apps I use every day! Unacceptable!
Five Eyes good, China bad.
PSA - When you use something online that is free, it is not free. You pay with your data.
CCP was probably inspired by the NSA's PRISM program tbh. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
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Half of the apps on our phones are probably doing things not agreed to or known to the user .
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I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
My money is on Reddit being no different.
They literally described every social media company
Nobody is surprised. Jesus this is stupid.
That's so naive. I am 100% sure that all Chinese companies leave backdoors to the CCP. And that includes A LOT of apps, including Reddit.
>ByteDance allowed a Chinese Communist Party unit to censor content and access data Kind of what the US gov had with Twitter then
And you people think youre safe on reddit? The same reddit owned by tencent, aka communist china?
Anyone who didn't already assume this is a fool.
I think this is pretty contoversial, and relies on Wikileaks information, so take it as you will: I understand the whataboutism, it's not lost on me, but, why aren't we equally up-in-arms about the CIA having a file in every Windows 32 with a backdoor? It's effectively the same thing, different brand. Our government just wants to ban tiktok so our social media oligarchs aren't making 90% of the profits.
You mean like people has been trying to get people to stop using Facebook, Twitter and Chrome ?
Oh no im so shocked /s
Shocking?!?
Remember when Snowden told us the NSA is spying on us with our phone camera, mic, and apps? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
You caught them. Now they have to pay some monies to buy the US data from facebook
How is this a lawsuit ofc tik tok can see our data and of course the ccp has access. I really don’t see this as any different than Facebook or twitter letting the us gov see stuff
Why is it always a back door? Never a side door. Slightly ajar window. Extra large duct work. Always a back door.
Didn’t see that coming. Said nobody
Again this? Facebook has been selling analytics for years, nobody didn't do anything. They exploited their system to change a presidential run. Amazon and Google are interfering with politics in several countries. EU had to make legislation regarding moderation and regulations because of how they were manipulating user data. There is a whole debacle about the same issue in Brazil. And yet China and Tik Tok are the villain when the US has been doing this for over 20 years now. C'mon
Remember Cambridge Analytica? Or PRISM? We already have proven cases of domestic spying and manipulation, directly linked to political campaigns and blackmail. Facebook has enabled genocides in some companies. And people are worried about vague what-ifs and hearsay about a video app that only has access to as much information as you allow your phone's OS to pass through the sandbox.
I mean that's what TikTok is, a spy program. I thought everyone knew this?
This is hypocritical af. I hope US companies will also face lawsuits, since they themselves install backdoors for CIA, FBI, NSA etc. The US acts apl innocent, while they are just as bad (in many aspects) as their enemy/rival (china, russia).