as “dangerous” in the wake of revelations that the app’s parent company inappropriately accessed data from journalists, as support grows for legislation to ban the platform in the US.TikTokThe employees are suspected of attempting to use data from the journalists’ accounts to establish what sources they were speaking to inside the company.
The company had previously denied the allegations. TikTok chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, said: “This misconduct is not at all representative of what I know our company’s principles to be.”London-based non-governmental organisation, Privacy International, said the problem was deeper.
“For too long companies like ByteDance that amass mounds of data are celebrated as ‘innovative’. Mass data accumulation isn’t innovation, it’s downright dangerous. Huge datasets are ripe for exploitation.”, said TikTok had “confirmed what it weakly tried to deny in October: that ByteDance targeted and tracked me and my colleagues to thwart our reporting.”Financial TimesBritish MPs called for action following the revelations.