Employees from TikTok Owner ByteDance Gained Access to User Data of Journalists - Internal Report Says

In an effort to find a company leak, four employees of TikTok's parent firm ByteDance gained access to data on two journalists and other US users, according to an internal inquiry in the company.

This new information may further stoke the already growing mistrust of several US states that have recently banned the app on government-owned devices.

As reported first by The New York Times, members of the ByteDance internal audit team - two in China and two in the US - obtained the reporters' IP addresses and other information as well as that of people they had interacted with on TikTok, to determine who had shared internal documents with journalists from BuzzFeed News and the Financial Times.

The investigation discovered that the workers attempted to determine whether the journalists and their affiliates had interacted with ByteDance employees by using the IP addresses.

However, the attempt failed to locate the leaks' origin.

Exacerbate Doubts

TikTok's new and shocking revelations may likely exacerbate the doubts of the US government to continue using the short-form video app even though its Chinese owners have been telling them that it offers no privacy or surveillance issues.

"This is why Congress must BAN TikTok on all federal devices now," Sen. Josh Hawley, one of TikTok's critics, said in a tweet on Thursday.

TikTok use on state-owned phones has just been outlawed by 19 governors, and on Tuesday, members of Congress introduced a similar prohibition for federal employees in their omnibus funding plan.

On Monday, West Virginia and Louisiana joined several states in banning the use of the Chinese app on government devices.

Some senators proposed an international ban last week, which would follow countries like India that have already outlawed the short-form video app.

Since the middle of the year, access to TikTok has been blocked by the government clients of Jamf Holding Corp., a company that offers filtering and safety measures on iPhones and other Apple devices for companies.

Nearly 65% of TikTok connection attempts have been blocked on devices managed by Jamf's public sector clients globally this month, up from 10% in June, according to the company.

In a statement released on Monday, TikTok expressed disappointment that so many states were jumping on the political bandwagon to enact regulations based on "unfounded falsehoods" about the social media platform.

The app has been prohibited in several governments, especially in Republican states, beginning in 2020. These states include Texas, South Carolina, Nebraska, Iowa, Alabama, Maryland, Utah, South Dakota, and North Dakota.