Former ByteDance Exec Claims CCP 'Maintained' Access to US Data (axios.com) 26
An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this report from Axios:
The Chinese Communist Party "maintained supreme access" to data belonging to TikTok parent company ByteDance, including data stored in the U.S., a former top executive claimed in a lawsuit Friday...
In a wrongful dismissal suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Yintao Yu said ByteDance "has served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party." Yu, whose claim says he served as head of engineering for ByteDance's U.S. offices from August 2017 to November 2018, alleged that inside the Beijing-based company, the CCP "had a special office or unit, which was sometimes referred to as the 'Committee'." The "Committee" didn't work for ByteDance but "played a significant role," in part by "gui[ding] how the company advanced core Communist values," the lawsuit claims... The CCP could also access U.S. user data via a "backdoor channel in the code," the suit states...
In an interview with the New York Times, which first reported the lawsuit, Yu said promoting anti-Japanese sentiment was done without hesitation.
"The allegations come as federal officials weigh the fate of the social media giant in the U.S. amid growing concerns over national security and data privacy," the article adds.
Yu also accused ByteDance of a years-long, worldwide "scheme" of scraping data from Instagram and Snapchat to post on its own services.
In a wrongful dismissal suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Yintao Yu said ByteDance "has served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party." Yu, whose claim says he served as head of engineering for ByteDance's U.S. offices from August 2017 to November 2018, alleged that inside the Beijing-based company, the CCP "had a special office or unit, which was sometimes referred to as the 'Committee'." The "Committee" didn't work for ByteDance but "played a significant role," in part by "gui[ding] how the company advanced core Communist values," the lawsuit claims... The CCP could also access U.S. user data via a "backdoor channel in the code," the suit states...
In an interview with the New York Times, which first reported the lawsuit, Yu said promoting anti-Japanese sentiment was done without hesitation.
"The allegations come as federal officials weigh the fate of the social media giant in the U.S. amid growing concerns over national security and data privacy," the article adds.
Yu also accused ByteDance of a years-long, worldwide "scheme" of scraping data from Instagram and Snapchat to post on its own services.
A National Security Threat (Score:5, Insightful)
While concerns over data privacy and spying are often cited in discussions about TikTok's potential ban, unfortunately, these are strawman arguments attempting to distract from the actual issue at hand, a real threat to American national security. The true problem lies in the legal authority the Chinese government holds over TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, and the implications of this control on the app's operations.
If you have 15 minutes, this short video makes a clear argument as to why it is in our national interest to ban TikTok, and why it is the only option we have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Chinese laws like the National Intelligence Law and the Data Security Law grant the Chinese government significant control over companies like ByteDance, requiring them to comply with any demands made by the government, handing over user data just the start, the real threat is that by law, Chinese companies have to modifying their algorithm according to whatever request the Chinese government requires. This legal authority makes TikTok inherently different from other social media platforms and poses a potential risk to American national security.
Some people have said that it is not a national security threat. They ask how an app like TikTok could be a threat. To explain, let us walk through a very realistic hypothetical situation.
Suppose for a moment that China decides to invade Taiwan in 2027 or 2028. To prevent the United States from getting involved, they must convince the American people that the US should not get involved. Public opinion matters in America because it is a democracy. China goes to Bite Dance, which by law must do whatever they are told, and tells them to align their algorithm to shape American public opinion on Taiwan. They will spend a couple of years laying this out. Bite Dance is instructed to ensure that people in America see messages that convince them that America should not get involved. They will use the data to target specific American audiences with specific messages. Some Americans might see staged videos that showing the people in Taiwan actually support a Chinese takeover. Some family members of military members may see videos about how thousands of Americans will die if the United States gets involved. Others might see videos of fake Americans arguing why should we care about Taiwan when we should be focused on our problems here at home.
Now, this is where people say, we will deal with it when it happens. But what comes next? You're going to have a bunch of small businesses in America that depend on marketing and TikTok. When the government tells them that they have to shut TikTok down because it's being used against America, those people are going to come out, and they're going to say, "You're going to destroy my business." China will probably threaten those people. They will probably make it very clear that if the U.S. gets involved, they will knock all the Americans off of TikTok. Those people will suddenly ask their elected officials here not to get involved in Taiwan, and we will find ourselves paralyzed.
A country that's paralyzed cannot act in its own national security interest because we've allowed an adversary to use an app that they control and the data that they control to shape public opinion in America over an extended period of time, all the while, the Chinese Communist Party has their public opinion on lock-down, and we can't do anything about it.
Some people may argue that this is a violation of the First Amendment - a free country. While it is true that everyone has the right to speak and say anything they want in America, this is not about the content of the videos. It's about the existence of a company that is related to an important government interest - the most important government interest we have, the national security of our country. Preventing our country from being paralyzed from acting in its national security interest is the most compelling and impo
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I'll argue that maybe USA should take some of its own medicine and rein in all social media and ad industry companies so there just isn't a ton of private data to harvest.
We need a GDPR for everyone.
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It is like gun owners. Russia, China, North Korea know the 5 million NRA lifetime members because it is easy to buy or steal. So in red dawn situation they know the couple thousand people their 10,000 agents have to kill. You can debate privacy, but the cat is out of the bag.
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Location Location Location.
Buying it leaves trails and costs money, this has plausible deniability and makes money.
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Getting full PI+location level access to a major social media app is going to cost you a little more than a few hundred thousand ... and the NSA will notice if some LLC in New Hampshire with a lot of Chinese expats throws that kind of money around.
That's NSA level access and the NSA gets jealous easily.
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i like that you openly admit that the fear is that china is a growing competitor, has the ability to influence world opinion, and might at some point prevent the us from roaming at will in international matters. because that is the whole deal, and that at least makes sense (as opposed to the "zomg bad communist cyberterrorists are going to invade us!!!" and much of the rest of your retort. tell me again, what's the us fucking business in taiwan?).
well, what can i say: deal with it. or ban tiktok in the us,
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Even though Israel and communism have often clouded their perspective, the US does ideologically support democracy. They support Taiwan because of historical alliance and democracy.
Not everything is Realpolitiks. Just like MFN trade with China and supporting their WTO accesson wasn't Realpolitiks, it was globalist ideology.
Re:A National Security Threat (Score:5, Insightful)
Even though Israel and communism have often clouded their perspective, the US does ideologically support democracy. They support Taiwan because of historical alliance and democracy.
Not everything is Realpolitiks. Just like MFN trade with China and supporting their WTO accesson wasn't Realpolitiks, it was globalist ideology.
The US does a fantastic job of faking democracy.
A two-party state, which comes across as a one-party state.
Voters barely have any choice at all.
If you want to see democracy, look at some European countries.
At least China can plan ahead further than the next election cycle.
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Taiwan was effectively a dictatorship, with martial law in effect up to 1986. The US supported them to annoy the PRC. The US props up oppressive regimes all the time.
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It is imperative that we take propaganda seriously, or future generations may look back and wonder why we did not take action.
i think you will find this recent /. story fascinating:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
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Regarding any story about China I start with the realization that even simply advocating for any new political party to counter the CCP is against their law and has severe penalties. China is run by an openly, straight-up one party totalitarian regime. Once I remind myself of this all Chinese government activities are easier to understand.
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Pro Russia propaganda probably came from Russia.. There's plenty of anti Russian stuff on TikTok so it's unlikely to be some kind if CCP policy.
I won't defend the CCP, they are monsters, but let's try to be objective here. Russia has full time shitposters on all social media platforms.
If you want to talk about dangerous platforms, let's start with Facebook and Twitter. Literal insurrection.
Is anyone really surprised ? (Score:2)
Maybe that the story has leaked.
Any relatives that Yintao Yu has in mainland China are now at risk.
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oh my gawd, is nobody going to think of the relatives?!
in other words, not as advanced as US spying (Score:1)
Anyone watch the snowden movie? The US doesn't need some social media app, NSA just hacks all the backbone routers to full access to everyone's data.
on the otherhand, I'm glad china hasn't done what the NSA does, since I don't use TikTok. Not that it matters, since the NSA already has access to every citizen's data. So much for privacy.
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Yeah, it's not like USA is innocent in any way.
Whataboutism [Re:in other words, not as advanc...] (Score:4, Insightful)
Saying "what about some other awful thing?!" is no excuse.
The only purpose whataboutism is to deflect attention from an outrage.
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Or it could simply be arguing that there shouldn't really be any outrage because evidently it's simply standard practice.
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The "Committee" didn't work for ByteDance but "played a significant role," in part by "gui[ding] how the company advanced core Communist values,"
What did the NSA do that was comparable to that?
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The government having a secret room at e.g. at&t sucking up all the data on the backbone isn't as worse or worst?
No one has to install tiktok, if you want to go ahead, but it's not necessary. But life without the internet is almost impossible at this point. There's no way to opt out. As to propaganda, the US government has other agencies to deal with that.
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Correct, the government trying to passively listen to network traffic is not as bad as either (a) telling a company how to push the government's favored ideology, or (b) exercising legal powers to order companies to follow government orders about spying. In China, companies cannot go to court to challenge the government assistance orders -- whereas UA companies can (and do) challenge subpoenas and national security letters.
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Every top-tier government and every large company has (or could get) every scrap of my data that’s connected to the internet. Some people still claim that the magic of tor, or cryptography, or *insert whatever privacy tech here*, will protect their data. These people are fooling themselves. They think that they’re smarter than the worlds best spooks. They’re not. The only way to keep your data pri
and how is that any different than the US (Score:3)
TikTok not just about READ access (Score:2)
The issue at hand transcends mere READ access. TikTok, in effect, providing the Chinese Communist Party with an unfiltered, direct influence, aka WRITE access, over the cognitive development of an entire American generation. While the US public has been preoccupied with challenging the federal government on its READ-only access, it seems we've underestimated the penetration of the CCP, which now holds an unchallenged root access, enabling both READ and WRITE privileges. It's crucial to act swiftly, initiall
I am shocked! (Score:2)
I am truly shocked that the CCP would lie, cheat and steal⦠SHOCKED, I tell you!