Leaked audio from 80 internal TikTok meetings between September 2021 and January 2022 revealed that the data of American users is repeatedly accessed by China-based employees of the platform’s parent company ByteDance. The leaked audio contradicts previous statements by TikTok that data collected in the US is stored in the US and not in China.
The recordings, obtained by BuzzFeed News, include 14 statements from nine employees that indicate China-based employees have access to US data.
For instance, in a meeting held in September 2021, a member of the Trust and Safety department said “Everything is seen in China.” In another meeting the same month, an employee referenced an engineer based in Beijing as a “Master Admin” with “access to everything.” Read more…
