A former employee of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has made startling allegations that Chinese national police detained his father and took him to a “remote secret facility” to interrogate and intimidate him after the former employee spoke out about ByteDance’s censorship of content on TikTok. The allegations were revealed in a redacted federal court filing in the case of another alleged TikTok whistleblower, Roger Yintao Yu. The former employee, who worked at TikTok’s headquarters in Beijing in 2019 and 2020, claimed that one of the main functions of the platform he worked on was to censor content on TikTok. After moving to the United States for graduate school, he spoke to the Agence France-Presse in 2022 about ByteDance’s censorship of TikTok, which was later translated and republished by the BBC.
The former employee wrote that the Chinese national police demanded that he keep quiet and contacted the BBC to retract the article, which he did under coercion and fear. The police also harassed his family, demanding him to delete his social media posts on Twitter. Despite complying out of fear for his family’s safety, the BBC refused to retract the story. The former employee did not claim that ByteDance was aware of or complicit in the Chinese police’s actions. ByteDance stated in a court filing that it “unequivocally denies any involvement” in the alleged events, and Forbes was unable to independently verify the claims.
These allegations, if true, indicate direct Chinese government involvement in suppressing discussions about censorship on TikTok, especially at a crucial time when Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or risk a ban in the United States due to national security concerns. TikTok and ByteDance have been challenging the law in court, arguing that it violates their First Amendment rights. The fate of the law depends on a three-judge panel on the DC Circuit, which is expected to rule on the matter by the end of the year. ByteDance has been under scrutiny for using TikTok to surveil journalists and monitoring sensitive words on its platforms, as well as making creator and advertiser data accessible to staff in China.
The former employee’s declaration was filed in support of a motion for reconsideration in Yintao Yu’s case, who alleged that ByteDance used TikTok to promote anti-Japanese rhetoric and condemn protests in and about Hong Kong. ByteDance has strongly opposed Yu’s claims, calling him a biased and non-credible witness who has made contradictory statements in court. Despite this, the lawyers did not directly challenge the former employee’s account in the case, labeling it as “third-party hearsay accounts criticizing the Chinese government’s alleged detention of political dissidents.” ByteDance has denied any involvement in the events described by the former employee and accused Yu of engaging in perjury in the case.
The former employee’s story sheds light on the risks faced by individuals in China who speak out against TikTok and ByteDance, highlighting the potential consequences of challenging censorship on the platform. ByteDance’s response to the allegations underscores the company’s denial of any involvement in the Chinese government’s actions and its commitment to defending itself against whistleblower claims. The ongoing legal battles surrounding TikTok and ByteDance reflect the complex interplay between national security concerns, freedom of speech, and corporate responsibility in the context of a global social media platform. The outcome of these cases will have significant implications for the future of TikTok and online content moderation practices.
