Three hundred current employees at TikTok and its parent company ByteDance previously worked for Chinese state media publications, according to public employee LinkedIn profiles reviewed by Forbes.| Forbes
ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location using their IP addresses, as first reported by Forbes in October.| Forbes
Former employees claim the company placed pieces of pro-China content in its now-defunct US news app, TopBuzz, and censored negative stories about the Chinese government. ByteDance says it did no such thing.| BuzzFeed News
In 2021, TikTok became the most visited website in the world. Since then, it has led trends in American culture and commerce, and played an increasing role in civic and political discourse around the world.| Forbes