ByteDance fired four employees after finding that they had accessed data on US TikTok users, including reporters, while trying to learn the sources of a story
ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists' physical location using their IP addresses, as first reported by Forbes in October.
Forbes Emily Baker-White
Context & Ripple Effects
The firings follow reports that ByteDance staff in China had repeatedly accessed US TikTok user data and that an audit team had planned to collect location data on specific US citizens. The confirmed use of IP-address data to track reporters turns those earlier access concerns into a documented misuse tied to source-hunting.
First-order effects
- ByteDance removes four employees from roles that had access to US TikTok user data, while acknowledging that journalists' locations were monitored through the app.
- Forbes and the targeted reporters gain confirmation that reporting on ByteDance was met with internal efforts to identify sources.
Second-order effects
- ByteDance's internal audit and risk-control functions face greater scrutiny after the earlier reported plan to collect location data on US citizens and the confirmed tracking of reporters.
- TikTok's assurances about US-data access are weakened by the incident, following reports of China-based staff repeatedly accessing US user data.
Third-order effects
- The episode strengthens the case that governance over sensitive platform data must cover internal investigative teams, not only external breaches or routine employee access.
- Official scrutiny can shift from abstract cross-border data-access concerns toward whether ByteDance's controls prevented data from being used to surveil critics; later coverage reported an FBI and DOJ investigation into the journalist surveillance.
The trend: Platform-data governance is increasingly being judged by whether internal access controls prevent surveillance and retaliation, not simply by where user data is stored.
Related: Consent architecture · ByteDance · TikTok · Documents: a China-based ByteDance audit and risk control team planned · Sources: the FBI and DOJ are investigating what led TikTok's parent company ByteDance to use the app to surveil US journalists
Related Coverage
- TikTok admits tracking FT journalist in leaks investigation Financial Times · Hannah Murphy
- Some universities are now restricting TikTok access on campus CNN · Samantha Murphy Kelly
- TikTok parent company acknowledges spying on journalists Washington Examiner · Christopher Hutton
- America should be wary of singling out TikTok Financial Times · Gillian Tett
- TikTok's parent company admits accessing journalists' data Politico · Clothilde Goujard
- TikTok apologizes after four employees hacked accounts of at least two Western reporters to discover where leaks about the Chinese firm were coming from Daily Mail · Alyssa Guzman
- TikTok's Chinese owner fires workers who gathered data on journalists Washington Post · Drew Harwell
- TikTok cops to running “covert surveillance campaign” on Western journalists Ars Technica · Ashley Belanger
- ByteDance finds employees obtained TikTok user data from two U.S. journalists Reuters · David Shepardson
- TikTok's parent company accessed the data of US journalists The Verge
- TikTok fires four employees for spying on US journalists by illegally accessing internal data Firstpost Tech · Mehul Reuben Das
- TikTok admits spying on journalists; a US ban may be on the way PhoneArena · Mariyan Slavov
- TikTok Employees Improperly Accessed User Data, Company Probe Finds Wall Street Journal · Salvador Rodriguez
- ByteDance finds four employees had accessed US journalists' TikTok data; fires them Neowin · Hemant Saxena
- China's ByteDance admits using TikTok data to track journalists Tech Xplore
- TikTok admits using its app to spy on reporters in effort to track leaks The Guardian
- ByteDance employees accessed user data of journalists on TikTok Tech in Asia · Deepti Sri
- TikTok's parent company fired four employees for accessing data on Western journalists SiliconANGLE · James Farrell
- ByteDance Probe Finds Employees Accessed Journalists' Data The Information
- TikTok Spied on Forbes Journalists Daring Fireball · John Gruber
- In October, I learned about Project Raven, and that ByteDance had planned to track my physical location, along with the locations of my colleagues @SchwabKatharine and @richardjnieva . … @ebakerwhite@journa.host · Emily Baker-Whte
- We also reported that the same ByteDance team doing the spying had also pushed out Roland Cloutier, the company's US-based Chief Security Officer, who was a US veteran and former law enforcement officer. https://www.forbes.com/... @ebakerwhite@journa.host · Emily Baker-Whte
Discussion
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@jsrailton@mastodon.social
John Scott-Railton☕
on mastodon
7/The #TikTok spying situation shows: an app doesn't need to have any special design features to be turned into an espionage tool. So many apps soak up much more than they should. …
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@ebakerwhite
Emily Baker-White
on x
ByteDance used TikTok to track my location — and the locations of two of my colleagues — to try to find our sources. We reported on this back in October, but kept things vague to protect sources. Today ByteDance admitted it, so we can say much more: https://www.forbes.com/...
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@ebakerwhite
Emily Baker-White
on x
Remember back in October when we reported that ByteDance sought to surveil specific US citizens, and TikTok assured everyone that they weren't targeting journalists? Well, turns out they were. I know because they targeted me. https://www.forbes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
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@hawleymo
Josh Hawley
on x
This is why Congress must BAN TikTok on all federal devices now - “ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, said on Thursday ...employees had inappropriately obtained the data of U.S. TikTok users, including two reporters.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@ebakerwhite
Emily Baker-White
on x
Hey all - here's a quick timeline about how this TikTok spying stuff all went down: In March, I broke the story that TikTok was working on Project Texas, a companywide effort to separate out US user data and limit China-based employees' access to it. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/…
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@ceciliakang
Cecilia Kang
on x
NEW: ByteDance Found In an Internal Investigation that Employees Obtained Data of 2 U.S. Journalists https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@mattgarrahan
Matthew Garrahan
on x
Outrageous: TikTok has admitted using its app to track the movements of two journalists reporting on the company, including the FT's Cristina Criddle, who delivered fearless reporting about problems at its commerce unit https://www.ft.com/...
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@jsrailton
John Scott-Railton
on x
BREAKING: #TikTok admits to using app data to spy on journalists including @CristinaCriddle & people connected to them. Tracked their movements. By @MsHannahMurphy https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/...
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@brendancarrfcc
Brendan Carr
on x
This is TikTok on its best behavior This is TikTok while in the midst of negotiations with U.S. officials—when it has every incentive to safeguard data This is TikTok spying on journalists This should be the final nail in the coffin for the idea that the U.S. can trust TikTok htt…
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@emilyrauhala
Emily Rauhala
on x
An internal investigation by ByteDance, the parent company of video-sharing platform TikTok, found that employees tracked journalists covering the company, gaining access to their IP addresses and user data to try to identify whether they had been near ByteDance employees https:/…
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@katienotopoulos
@katienotopoulos
on x
“I also want to emphasize that we have an open and candid culture within ByteDance. It's a core part of our ByteStyles.” (I love when goofy company lingo is used during while describing something that is probably a crime) https://www.theverge.com/...
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@journalistslike
@journalistslike
on x
Is there any social media platform that isn't terrible for journalists? https://www.theverge.com/...
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@oliviasolon
Olivia Solon
on x
In light of the revelation that TikTok was tracking the locations of journalists to trace the source of leaks, a reminder that some tech companies' hire “rat catchers” from law enforcement for this purpose. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
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@ewong
Edward Wong
on x
This will not help TikTok's case to the Biden administration & Congress: Employees of ByteDance, the Chinese parent co. of TikTok, accessed the data of reporters at Forbes in trying to track down leaks. The employees were in the US and China. https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@callumj
@callumj
on x
Thank god we have the App Store review process to protect users from this... 🙄 https://twitter.com/...
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@shiraovide
Shira Ovide
on x
Not a great week for influential apps treading on the constitutionally protected values of journalism and free expression. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... (Drew Harwell, who wrote this article, remains suspended from Twitter for doing reporting.)
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@birdyword
Mike Bird
on x
Two members of staff in the US and two in China gained access to the IP addresses and other personal data of FT journalist Cristina Criddle, to work out if she was in the proximity of any ByteDance employees, the company said. https://www.ft.com/...
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@tjmanotoc
TJ Manotoc
on x
Damn. It's getting real 😳 https://twitter.com/...
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@congressmanraja
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi
on x
This news only underscores the need to pass our recently-introduced bipartisan ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act. For more on why we need to pass this bill, read this: https://www.dailyherald.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
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@tomfitton
Tom Fitton
on x
TItok “tracked multiple journalists covering the company, improperly gaining access to their IP addresses and user data in an attempt to identify whether they had been in the same locales as ByteDance employees.” https://www.forbes.com/...
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@byrontau
Byron Tau
on x
TikTok accessed data on two US journalists. All reporters—not just those covering national security—need to understand the risks of letting *any* company have access to their data in order to best protect sources from retaliation, job loss and lawsuits. https://www.nytimes.com/..…
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@qban_linx
@qban_linx
on x
Twitter does the exact same thing, even if your location data is turned off. For example, websites and apps that allow you to use Twitter for single sign-on will expose your location to Twitter itself. Same for news and advertising links you click through to. https://twitter.com/…
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@redsteeze
Stephen L. Miller
on x
I mean, the Washington Post has an entire team of people who just make TikToks. Bloomberg just signed up for it even after the Forbes report was released. https://twitter.com/...
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@alexrkonrad
Alex Konrad
on x
TikTok has admitted it spied on three of my @forbes colleagues — @ebakerwhite, @richardjnieva and @SchwabKatharine — using its app. They haven't wavered in reporting the story despite earlier denials. Wild. tip @Techmeme https://www.forbes.com/...
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@tculpan
Tim Culpan
on x
So.. TikTok tracks people's locations TikTok denies it tracks people's locations TikTok tracks the location of people who may have told people that it tracks people's locations TikTok chief says it's “not at all representative of what I know our company's principles to be”
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@charlesarthur
Charles Arthur
on x
“EXCLUSIVE: TikTok Spied On Forbes Journalists” - and other journalists. This is explosive for TikTok (and parent ByteDance): makes all its assurances about data access completely empty. Regulation/lawsuits sure to follow. https://www.forbes.com/...
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@jdiamond1
Jeremy Diamond
on x
“Employees gained access to the IP addresses and other data of two reporters and a small number of people connected to the reporters via their TikTok accounts. They were trying to determine if those individuals were within proximity of ByteDance employees” https://www.nytimes.com…
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@willoremus
Will Oremus
on x
So @drewharwell can't post his story here because he's still locked by Twitter for factual reporting that @elonmusk didn't like, but he confirms @nytimes scoop that TikTok has fired employees for secretly accessing the private data of two US journalists. https://www.washingtonpos…
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@mshannahmurphy
Hannah Murphy
on x
TikTok owner ByteDance has admitted it inappropriately obtained the data of users - including that of my Financial Times colleague @CristinaCriddle - in order to analyse their location as part of an internal leaks investigation https://www.ft.com/...
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@paulszoldra
Paul Szoldra
on x
“Two of those employees were based in China...” https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@anthony
Anthony DeRosa
on x
ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, said on Thursday that an internal investigation found that employees had inappropriately obtained the data of U.S. TikTok users, including two reporters https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@tonyromm
Tony Romm
on x
whoa https://twitter.com/...
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@ceciliakang
Cecilia Kang
on x
The investigation was prompted by an article by @ebakerwhite in Forbes https://twitter.com/...