Foreign Affairs

TikTok Employees Raise Concern Over CCP Influence As China Execs Move In

PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 05: In this photo illustration, the social media application logo, Tik Tok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on March 05, 2019 in Paris, France. The social network broke the rules for the protection of children's online privacy (COPPA) and was fined $ 5.7 million. The fact TikTok criticized is quite serious in the United States, the platform, which currently has more than 500 million users worldwide, collected data that should not have asked minors. TikTok, also known as Douyin in China, is a media app for creating and sharing short videos. Owned by ByteDance, Tik Tok is a leading video platform in Asia, United States, and other parts of the world. In 2018, the application gained popularity and became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

Some employees at the popular social media platform TikTok are concerned about the influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has on the company as executives from its parent, ByteDance, take on new positions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A number of high-level executives from ByteDance in China have taken on new roles at TikTok’s U.S. operation, with employees complaining internally that there may be greater CCP influence than what is being publicly disclosed, according to the WSJ. The China-based ByteDance is subject to CCP regulation and can be pressured by the government to hand over information that the company has collected, which has in the past raised concerns over whether American users of the app are having their data collected by the foreign government.

ByteDance first separated its U.S. social media operation in 2021, at which point TikTok employees claim to have gained more decision-making power independent of the parent company, according to the WSJ. This changed at the beginning of 2023 as new executives from ByteDance arrived at the company and started taking a greater role in decision-making, indicating a closer connection with the parent company and, in turn, greater Chinese influence.

The ByteDance executives have moved into roles at TikTok in its advertising, human resources, monetization and e-commerce departments, according to the WSJ. Some executives have brought entire teams from their Beijing headquarters.

A former executive for ByteDance claimed in a legal filing that a group of members within the CCP had special credentials that could grant access to U.S. user data from TikTok. The CCP could allegedly access network information, SIM card identification and IP addresses of users to track and identify them.

President Joe Biden previously gave an ultimatum to TikTok to divest from ByteDance or face a potential ban in the U.S. but has since engaged in negotiations with the two entities in order to avoid a ban. A proposal was submitted in August 2022 from Byte Dance to the U.S. detailing how it would relinquish control of TikTok’s U.S. operation to a three-person board chosen by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but that has yet to be acted on.

TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.