TikTok Alleged to Be Spying on … Journalists
February 19, 2025
It is an open secret that TikTok is spying on the West and collecting piles of information on (maybe) unsuspecting victims. Forbes, however, allegedly has evidence of TikTok spying on its reporters: “TikTok Spied On Forbes Journalists.”
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, conducted an internal investigation and discovered that their employees tracked journalists who were reporting on the company. The audit also revealed that they used the journalists’ user data to track if they had been in close proximity with ByteDance employees.
“According to materials reviewed by Forbes, ByteDance tracked multiple Forbes journalists as part of this covert surveillance campaign, which was designed to unearth the source of leaks inside the company following a drumbeat of stories exposing the company’s ongoing links to China. As a result of the investigation into the surveillance tactics, ByteDance fired Chris Lepitak, its chief internal auditor who led the team responsible for them. The China-based executive Song Ye, who Lepitak reported to and who reports directly to ByteDance CEO Rubo Liang, resigned.”
ByteDance didn’t deny the surveillance, but said that TikTok couldn’t monitor people like the article suggested. The parent company also said it didn’t target journalists, public figures, US government members, or political activists. It’s funny that TikTok is trying to convince the Trump administration that it’s a benign force, but this story proves the opposite.
All of this is alleged of course. But it is an interesting story because journalists don’t do news. Journalists are pundits, consultants, and podcasters.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2025
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