The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was granted access to user data gathered by TikTok owner ByteDance through a “god credential” to follow and monitor Hong Kong dissidents and demonstrators in 2018, a lawsuit claims.
Former head of engineering at ByteDance in the US, Yintao “Roger” Yu, said in court documents that a special committee in Beijing had access to a backdoor to firewalls set up by ByteDance to secure user data and utilized this access to spy on users in Hong Kong.
Yu stated in the document submitted this week in a San Francisco court that “(p)rotesters’, supporters’, and civil rights activists’ device identifiers were tracked in addition to their network information, SIM card identifications, and IP addresses”.
“This information was used to determine both the users’ identity and locations. The TikTok app stores all the users’ direct messages, their search histories, the content viewed by the users, and duration. From the logs, I saw that the Committee accessed the protestors’, civil rights activists’, and supporters’ unique user data, locations, and communications.”
According to the complaint, Yu said that ByteDance management are well aware of the existence of a global “god credential,” which directly contradicts statements their managers made to lawmakers in the US and other nations that are considering whether to outlaw TikTok due to national security concerns.
Mr. Yu’s allegations come as TikTok is being closely examined all around the world. The first US state to adopt a broad ban on the Chinese-owned video-sharing network was Montana in May, in a move deemed uncostitutional by the Chinese-based tech company.
