According to a Forbes report, the parent company of TikTok wanted to use the video app to monitor the personal location of some American citizens.
ByteDance's Internal Audit team is usually tasked with keeping an eye on those who currently work for the company or who have worked for the company in the past. According to Forbes, its report was based on materials it reviewed but did not include details about who was potentially going to be tracked or why ByteDance was planning on doing so.
According to Forbes, TikTok and ByteDance didn't answer questions about whether the internal audit team had ever targeted US politicians, activists, public figures, or journalists.
The app has never been used to target anyone in those groups and it doesn't change the in-app experience for those people. TikTok says its app has not been used for that purpose, but it is not an absolute denial of any consideration for specific targeting. According to the company, the audit team follows set policies and processes to acquire information.
Forbes claimed that anyone caught doing what it said would be fired.
US lawmakers have been concerned about the Chinese government's access to data about US citizens for a long time. The CEO of TikTok wrote a letter to Republican critics explaining how the company planned to keep American user data separate from ByteDance after it was reported that user data had been accessed from China.
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