TikTok parent company fires technical director for revealing 'shocking' secret

Yintao “Roger” Yu said he discovered ByteDance had been engaged in a multi-year “global scheme” to steal and profit from “others’ copyrighted works” after joining the company in 2017, according to a complaint filed by the former China-based executive in a state court in San Francisco last week.

ByteDance's TikTok app is under the "sights" of many countries due to concerns about its connection to China.

In addition, TikTok’s parent company has also been accused of creating fake accounts to “like” and “follow” real accounts to falsify data to deceive potential investors. Yu said the company has a “non-legal” culture, focusing on growth at all costs and euphemistically justifying it as “entrepreneurial spirit”.

After Yu reported his concerns to his superiors, they dismissed them and ordered the illegal activity to be covered up before terminating the former executive in 2018. According to the complaint, Kelly Zhang, the chief executive of ByteDance China, was behind the “retaliatory behavior.”

TikTok is under intense scrutiny in several countries over concerns that the Chinese government could demand user data. The short -video platform has sent a letter to the US Congress, reiterating that it has “never shared” US user data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.

Meanwhile, the complaint also states that ByteDance used software to scrape videos from competing websites to make its own service more popular with users. “These actions were performed without the consent of content creators and represent an unlawful attempt to gain an advantage over other online video hosting websites.”

Yu, who resides in California, was hired with stock options and a $600,000 guaranteed payment for intellectual property from Tank Exchange (Yu's own company) on the condition that he stay with ByteDance for two years.

TikTok’s parent company said Yu’s firing was part of a workforce reduction plan, but the plaintiff said he never received any specific notice. In November 2018, Yu was terminated without the agreed-upon stock award. In 2019, the former executive filed a discrimination lawsuit with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

(According to Bloomberg)

Source