TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter has revealed that ByteDance, the parent company, “has fired four employees who improperly accessed the personal data of two journalists on the platform.”
According to the company, “TikTok user data from the two journalists, who worked for the Financial Times and BuzzFeed, was accessed while ByteDance employees were investigating potential employee leaks to the press.”
“The individuals involved misused their authority to obtain access to TikTok user data,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in his email to employees. “This is unacceptable,” the email, seen by multiple news agencies, reads.
Forbes reported in October, that “ByteDance planned to use TikTok data to surveil certain US citizens.” In a report last week, Forbes named three journalists who had been tracked by the company.
“The misconduct of these individuals, who are no longer employed at ByteDance, was an egregious misuse of their authority to obtain access to user data…This misbehavior is unacceptable, and not in line with our efforts across TikTok to earn the trust of our users, “Oberwetter said in a statement last week.
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He added: “We take data security incredibly seriously, and we will continue to enhance our access protocols, which have already been significantly improved and hardened since this incident took place.”
The Financial Times said in a report last week that “spying on reporters, interfering with their work or intimidating their sources is completely unacceptable.”