According to court documents filed by Yintao “Roger” Yu, a former executive at ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, Chinese Communist Party officials had access to a “god credential” on the social media platform that allowed them to track pro-democracy protesters and civil rights activists in Hong Kong. The court filing alleges that CCP officials used the backdoor access to monitor key data linked to Hong Kong protesters, including their locations, personal devices, IP addresses, and SIM card numbers, as well as personal communications on TikTok. Yu also claimed that ByteDance promoted CCP propaganda while suppressing content related to the Hong Kong protests. TikTok officials denied the Chinese government has access to US user data.
Lawsuit claims Chinese authorities monitored Hong Kong demonstrators via TikTok
