Ex-TikTok Employee Drops Bombshell: Every American Involved in Shocking Data Scandal!
According to a report from Fortune released on Monday, a former high-ranking employee at TikTok disclosed that he was instructed to transmit American user data to the Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, directly contradicting TikTok's public assertions of maintaining independence from China.
Evan Turner, who served as a senior data scientist for TikTok from April to September 2022, informed Fortune that TikTok tasked him with sending spreadsheets containing extensive American user data to ByteDance employees in Beijing every two weeks. This data encompassed users' names, email addresses, IP addresses, and demographic information.
Turner revealed, "I literally worked on a project that gave U.S. data to China," despite TikTok's introduction of Project Texas in March 2022. This initiative pledged to cease sharing American user data with its Chinese parent company and instead retain the data within U.S.-based data centers.
He further alleged complicity among American upper management in facilitating this data transfer.
Although Turner's supervisor transitioned from a ByteDance executive in Beijing to an American manager in Seattle, Turner claimed that a human resources representative informed him that he would ultimately still report to the Beijing-based ByteDance executive. Turner stated he never met with the American manager and continued to hold weekly meetings with the ByteDance executive.
Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, expressed concerns about the potential ramifications of such data sharing, noting that even though a spreadsheet represents a small fraction of the data collected by TikTok, it could be highly targeted and damaging to individuals.
The revelations come amid heightened scrutiny of TikTok's ties to the Chinese Communist Party, with U.S. lawmakers questioning TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in January over alleged national security risks. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have expressed concerns and sought to impose restrictions on TikTok's operations in the United States.
In a significant move last month, the House voted 352-65 in favor of banning TikTok unless it is sold to a non-Chinese company. President Biden indicated he would sign the bill into law should it pass through the Senate.