ByteDance said it condemned the former employee’s actions.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating TikTok owner ByteDance over recent revelations that employees were stalking journalists to find out who leaked company details to the press, according to a new report. .
The Department of Justice and federal prosecutors for the Eastern District of Virginia have subpoenaed information from ByteDance that ByteDance employees are using the TikTok app to attempt to access location information and other personal user data of US journalists. According to two sources, the FBI was conducting interviews related to surveillance.”
The investigation was also confirmed today in New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles citing anonymous sources. The investigation reportedly began in December. ByteDance is based in China, and TikTok is facing the possibility of being banned in the US if it doesn’t sever ties with its China-based owners.
“We have strongly condemned the actions of the individuals found to have been involved, and they are no longer employed at ByteDance,” the company told Forbes this week. “Our internal investigation is still ongoing, and we will cooperate with any official investigations when brought to us.”
Surveillance targeted US and UK journalists
ByteDance’s internal investigation, which was triggered by news reports detailing the surveillance, “found that employees tracked multiple journalists covering the company, improperly gaining access to their IP addresses and user data in an attempt to identify whether they had been in the same locales as ByteDance employees,” Forbes wrote in December, adding:
The investigation, internally known as Project Raven, began this summer after BuzzFeed News published a story revealing that China-based ByteDance employees had repeatedly accessed US user data, based on more than 80 hours of audio recordings of internal TikTok meetings. According to internal ByteDance documents reviewed by Forbes, Project Raven involved the company’s chief security and privacy office, was known to TikTok’s global legal compliance officer, and was approved by ByteDance employees in China. Emily Baker-White, Katherine Schwab and Richard Nieva are former Forbes journalists who worked for BuzzFeed News.
Forbes wrote that the surveillance campaign was “designed to uncover the source of leaks within the company after a rumored drumroll revealed the company’s ongoing ties to China.” ByteDance’s chief internal auditor, Chris Lepitak, has been fired, and Song Ye, a China-based executive who reported to Lepitak, has resigned, according to the company.
A Financial Times reporter was also reportedly under surveillance by the company. “Two of her employees in the United States and two of her employees in China used the IP address of FT journalist Christina Criddle and other individuals to find out if they were in the vicinity of ByteDance employees. We were granted access to the data, but the company said it was unable to find any leaks,” the FT wrote in December. “Dozens of employees have left TikTok’s London office, revealing that some worked 12-hour days or were demoted after vacations,” Criddle wrote in an article, the FT wrote. increase.
TikTok has announced that it will reorganize its internal audit and risk management department and remove all user data access and permissions for the department.We have reached out to ByteDance today and will update this post with any further comments.
