Bytedance Illegal Activity: Fired for Finding Illegal Activity, Says Former ByteDance Executive

Former head of engineering Bytedance in the United States said the company fired him after he expressed concern to management that it was taking user-generated content from other platforms, mainly Instagram and Snapchat.

The dispute arose at a time when the application, owned by ByteDance, tik tak is facing growing calls for a nationwide ban from some U.S. lawmakers over concerns about the Chinese government’s potential influence on it.

Yingtao “Roger” Yu said in a lawsuit filed on Friday in a San Francisco state court that the Chinese technology company was involved in a “worldwide scheme to steal and profit from other people’s content” without permission.

When Yu brought these concerns to senior management, he said they dismissed them and asked him to hide the illegal program, especially from employees in the United States, as it has stricter intellectual property laws and class action lawsuits.

He was later fired by ByteDance in November 2018.

Yu also said in the complaint that ByteDance created fake users to exaggerate its performance and served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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He is seeking a court order preventing ByteDance from extracting content from other sources. social media platforms. In response to the complaint, ByteDance stated, “We plan to strongly oppose what we consider to be unfounded statements and allegations. Yu worked at ByteDance Inc. less than a year.”

ByteDance also responded to the scraping allegations by saying it was collecting data in line with industry practice and its global policies.

In April, Montana lawmakers passed legislation to ban the TikTok short app in the state.

In March, US lawmakers questioned TikTok’s chief executive. The Zi Chu Show about China’s potential influence, saying its short videos are damaging to children’s mental health, reflecting bipartisan concerns about the app’s power over Americans.

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