A former head of engineering at ByteDance in the United States has said he was fired after the company expressed concerns to management that it was primarily taking user content from other platforms. Instagram And Snapchat,
The dispute happened at a time when bytedance-Proprietary App TIC Toc It is facing growing calls for a nationwide ban by some US lawmakers over concerns about potential Chinese government influence over it.
Yintao “Roger” Yu said in a complaint filed in San Francisco state court on Friday that the Chinese tech company engaged in a “worldwide scheme to steal and profit from others’ content” without seeking permission.
When Yu raised these concerns with higher management, they said they dismissed them and asked them to hide the illegal program, especially from employees in the United States, as it had strict IP laws and class action.
He was later sacked by ByteDance in November 2018.
Yu also said in the complaint that ByteDance created fictitious users to exaggerate its metrics and serve as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
He is seeking a court order that would prevent ByteDance from scraping content from other social media Forum.
In response to the complaint, ByteDance said, “We plan to vigorously oppose the baseless claims and accusations. Mr. Yu worked for ByteDance for less than a year.”
ByteDance also responded to the scraping allegations, saying it acquired the data in line with industry practice and its global policy.
In April, lawmakers in Montana passed a bill to ban its short-form TikTok app from operating in the state.
In March, US lawmakers questioned the CEO of Tiktok show zee chew Reflecting bipartisan concerns about the app’s power over Americans, over potential Chinese influence, saying its short videos are harming children’s mental health.
© Thomson Reuters 2023