According to a former head of engineering at Bytedance in the United States, the firm fired him after he complained to management about the corporation stealing user content from other platforms, primarily Instagram and Snapchat.
The disagreement comes at a time when some US politicians are calling for a statewide ban on ByteDance-owned app TikTok because to concerns about potential Chinese government influence over it.
In a complaint filed Friday in San Francisco state court, Yintao "Roger" Yu claimed that the Chinese internet corporation engaged in a "worldwide scheme to steal and profit from the content of others" without requesting permission.
When Yu voiced these concerns with upper management, he said they disregarded them and instructed him to hide the illegal programme, particularly from employees in the United States, where IP rules are harsher and class actions are more common.
ByteDance later fired him in November 2018.
Yu further claimed in his complaint that ByteDance used fictitious users to inflate its metrics and worked as a beneficial propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
He is requesting a court order preventing ByteDance from harvesting content from other social media networks.
"We plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations," ByteDance said in response to the complaint. Mr. Yu had only been with ByteDance Inc. for a year."
ByteDance also replied to the charges of data scraping, claiming that it obtained data in accordance with industry practise and its global policy.
Montana lawmakers enacted legislation in April prohibiting the short-form TikTok app from operating in the state.
In March, US legislators questioned TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about potential Chinese influence, claiming that the app's short videos were harming children's mental health, echoing bipartisan concerns about the app's effect over Americans.
(Source:www.theprint.in)
The disagreement comes at a time when some US politicians are calling for a statewide ban on ByteDance-owned app TikTok because to concerns about potential Chinese government influence over it.
In a complaint filed Friday in San Francisco state court, Yintao "Roger" Yu claimed that the Chinese internet corporation engaged in a "worldwide scheme to steal and profit from the content of others" without requesting permission.
When Yu voiced these concerns with upper management, he said they disregarded them and instructed him to hide the illegal programme, particularly from employees in the United States, where IP rules are harsher and class actions are more common.
ByteDance later fired him in November 2018.
Yu further claimed in his complaint that ByteDance used fictitious users to inflate its metrics and worked as a beneficial propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
He is requesting a court order preventing ByteDance from harvesting content from other social media networks.
"We plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations," ByteDance said in response to the complaint. Mr. Yu had only been with ByteDance Inc. for a year."
ByteDance also replied to the charges of data scraping, claiming that it obtained data in accordance with industry practise and its global policy.
Montana lawmakers enacted legislation in April prohibiting the short-form TikTok app from operating in the state.
In March, US legislators questioned TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about potential Chinese influence, claiming that the app's short videos were harming children's mental health, echoing bipartisan concerns about the app's effect over Americans.
(Source:www.theprint.in)
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