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The Chinese Communist Party “maintained supreme access” to data belonging to TikTok parent company ByteDance, including data stored in the U.S., a former top executive claimed in a lawsuit Friday…
In a wrongful dismissal suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Yintao Yu said ByteDance “has served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.” Yu, whose claim says he served as head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S. offices from August 2017 to November 2018, alleged that inside the Beijing-based company, the CCP “had a special office or unit, which was sometimes referred to as the ‘Committee’.” The “Committee” didn’t work for ByteDance but “played a significant role,” in part by “gui[ding] how the company advanced core Communist values,” the lawsuit claims… The CCP could also access U.S. user data via a “backdoor channel in the code,” the suit states…
In an interview with the New York Times, which first reported the lawsuit, Yu said promoting anti-Japanese sentiment was done without hesitation.
“The allegations come as federal officials weigh the fate of the social media giant in the U.S. amid growing concerns over national security and data privacy,” the article adds.
Yu also accused ByteDance of a years-long, worldwide “scheme” of scraping data from Instagram and Snapchat to post on its own services.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
TikTok is still fighting to remain operational in the United States, but a new lawsuit could complicate things even further for the company. A former ByteDance executive has alleged TikTok’s owner used bots and stolen content to inflate the app’s engagement.
The lawsuit, filed by former head of engineering Yintao Yu and reported byThe New York Times, claims that ByteDance wrongly fired Yu after he pushed back on company practices like stealing other apps’ material. It also claims that ByteDance acted as a “useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party,” and that China-based employees could access US users’ data.
As The New York Times points out, Yu’s allegations “describe how ByteDance operated five years ago” and come after “several years of mediation.” Still, the claims are still likely to fuel even more scrutiny for TikTok, which is facing the prospect of a nationwide ban in the United States. Lawmakers and other officials have claimed that TikTok is a national security threat and that the app can’t be trusted to protect the data of US users.
Yu’s allegations could intensify those concerns. The lawsuit details “a special unit of Chinese Communist Party members” at ByteDance offices in Beijing who “guided how the company advanced core Communist values.” He also alleges that ByteDance employees manipulated Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to suppress content about protests in Hong Kong and “elevate content that expressed hatred for Japan.”
Some of Yu’s claims also relate directly to TikTok. Notably, he claims that ByteDance engineers stole popular content from apps like Instagram and Snapchat and put the videos onto TikTok. He also alleges that the company used bot accounts to juice the app’s engagement metrics when it was just starting out and trying to gain a foothold in the US. (Yu left the company in November 2018, shortly after ByteDance rebranded Musical.ly as TikTok.)
Spokespeople for ByteDance and TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But TikTok has repeatedly tried to downplay its ties to ByteDance and China, including in CEO Shou Zi Chew’s congressional testimony in March. The company has also dedicated more than a billion dollars into Project Texas, which aims to wall off TikTok’s US user data from the rest of ByteDance in an effort to allay the concerns of US regulators.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/former-bytedance-exec-claims-company-used-bots-to-inflate-tiktok-engagement-211351640.html?src=rss
Months after Elon Musk ran a Twitter poll in which the platform’s users voted for him to step down, we now know just who Twitter’s new CEO is going to be.
On Friday, Musk confirmed reports that the new CEO for Twitter – technically, X Corp. now – is going to be former head of advertising at NBCUniversal, Linda Yaccarino. NBCUniversal confirmed her departure from the company just hours before Musk announced the Twitter news.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk tweeted. “@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
Musk tweeted just yesterday that he had finally hired a new CEO for the company. However, at the time, he did not disclose exactly who it was. His use of pronouns in his tweet, though, gave a hint that Twitter’s new CEO would be a woman.
Some, like longtime tech reporter Kara Swisher, rightly guessed Yaccarino was the likely candidate. Hours later, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that Yaccarino was in talks to take on the role.
For those unfamiliar with her, Yaccarino interviewed Musk last month at a major advertiser event where Twitter’s owner attempted to woo brands back to the platform. Half of Twitter’s largest advertisers ended their ad campaigns when Musk took over the platform and have not come back. Those who stayed are also spending significantly less money.
Yaccarino is a seasoned advertising executive and well-known in an industry that has been very skeptical of Musk. The vast majority of Twitter’s revenue before Musk came along was derived from advertising and Musk’s subscription-based ventures have not been going well.
The hire has already proven to be controversial among Twitter’s user base. Yaccarino’s Twitter history shows that she follows many right-wing influencers and has liked their posts over the years. Members of Musk’s conservative fanbase, however, are focusing on her association with the World Economic Forum (WEF), a common target of far-right conspiracy theorists.
Advertisers and Twitter’s users should take note, though: It’s unclear just how much Yaccarino’s hire will actually change Twitter. Musk is staying on board as executive chair and CTO. And, of course, he owns the entire company, and is still steering the ship regardless of who has the “CEO” title.
Elon Musk says he has found a new CEO for Twitter and that “she” will start in a matter of weeks. It’s most likely going to be Linda Yaccarino, the current head of advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal.
I wish I could say with certainty that it’s her, though the deal doesn’t seem to be totally done. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that she’s “in talks” for the job, and Dylan Byers of Puck says Musk “plans” to give it to her. Unfortunately, her spokesperson is ghosting me and Twitter has resorted to responding to press inquiries with a poop emoji.
I do know, however, that Yaccarino has been angling for the job and telling friends she wants it. The advertising world is certainly gossiping that it’s her. She recently hosted…
During a launch event for the Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC, Roanne Sones, the head of Xbox devices, discussed how the device is “making us think differently about the experiences” for gaming on Windows PCs.
Specifically, she called out how today’s consoles let you quickly resume a game and said the ROG Ally pushes Microsoft to think about that for PCs as well: “How do we think about integrating this into the Windows platform?” Another focus is on making it easy to immediately pick up where you left off, moving from gaming on a PC to a session that’s ready to go on this kind of handheld.
Sones has made similar comments before, as my colleague Tom Warren points out. During another ROG Ally event in April, she discussed working with…
He is responsible for establishing sports deals with Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball, and he has been working on Apple TV+ content deals since 2017. Distad works under Oliver Schusser, who reports to Eddy Cue.
With Distad leaving the company, Apple will promote Jim DeLorenzo for sports content, and is looking for a replacement to take over the TV business side.
Distad was initially hired in 2013, and before joining Apple, he was Hulu’s senior vice president of marketing and distribution. Distad is the third services executive to leave the company in recent months, with his departure following services business head Peter Stern and cloud services lead Michael Abbott.
This article, “Apple TV+ and Sports Business Exec Leaves Company” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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