(NewsNation) — TikTok is back in the hot seat after a former employee of its parent company says it is engaged in a “worldwide scheme to steal and profit from the content of others,” including Facebook and Instagram.
Yintao Yu is suing ByteDance, claiming the company that owns the social media giant is monitored by the Chinese Communist Party from its Beijing headquarters. The former executive also says the company is sharing U.S. data with the Chinese government.
In addition, Yu said in the complaint that ByteDance created fabricated users to exaggerate its metrics and served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.
Yu alleges ByteDance fired him after exposing the company’s “wrongdoing.”
In a statement, ByteDance denies any wrongdoing, saying it is “committed to respecting the intellectual property of other companies, and we acquire data in accordance with industry practices and our global policy.”
This lawsuit comes less than two months after TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified in front of lawmakers on Capitol hill, denying that the Chinese government has access to the data of the 150 million Americans with the app.
“I have seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data,” Chew said. “they have never asked us, we have not provided. I have seen no evidence of this happening.”
China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday accused the United States itself of spreading disinformation about TikTok’s potential security risks following a report in the Wall Street Journal that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. — part of the Treasury Department — was threatening a U.S. ban on the app unless its Chinese owners divest their stake.
The Biden administration has banned TikTok from all federal devices. Montana went a step further, banning the platform on all devices altogether.
Bytedance responded to the suit, saying “We plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations. Mr. Yu worked for ByteDance, Inc., for less than a year.”