San Francisco, Aug 12 : At at least 300 employees of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance employees worked for Chinese state-owned media as well as over a dozen work for them, the media reported. LinkedIn profiles of ByteDance and TikTok employees showcased them in their current positions as content partnerships as well as policy, strategy, public affairs, monetisation , and media cooperation, according to Forbes.
Portraits of 15 present ByteDance employees revealed that they worked for the tech company and state media outlets at the same time.
“Fifteen report that indicate that the current ByteDance employees also employed by Chinese state media companies which include Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International and China Central/China Global Television.” the report stated late on Thursday.
The LinkedIn profiles examined by Forbes “reveal significant connections between TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and the propaganda arm of the Chinese government which has invested massively in making use of social media in order to spread misinformation that aids the Chinese Communist Party”.
As per the report, ByteDance as well as TikTok did not dispute that the 300 LinkedIn profiles are current employees or deny any connection to Chinese state media.
A representative from ByteDance stated that the company takes “hiring decisions based solely on the ability of an individual’s professional to perform the job”.
“For our businesses in China this includes those who have employed in the state or government media posts in China.Outside of China employees also have knowledge in public policy, government and media companies from hundreds of markets” the firm said.
Forbes discovered 49 LinkedIn profiles of TikTok as well as ByteDance employees who worked previously with CCTV as well as CGTN.
One of them was the former editor-in-chief of CCTV who is now director at ByteDance of media partnerships and content, as well as a ByteDance market operator in the world, with a profile that states he is still the editor of CCTV.
The rise of TikTok has raised security concerns for the nation from US lawmakers.
TikTok recently acknowledged that employees from outside of the US could have access to the information, even though “robust security controls for cybersecurity and authorization” from the US security team were required.
In June, Buzzfeed News reported that TikTok users’ information in the US was frequently used by TikTok employees in China.
na/svn/
.
