- A former TikTok employee claims the company hid ByteDance’s involvement, Fortune reported.
- Evan Turner said he checked in with a ByteDance executive in Beijing and never met his American boss.
- The claims come as TikTok fights legislation forcing the sale of the Chinese app.
A former TikTok employee said the company tried to hide Chinese owner ByteDance’s involvement in his work by assigning him to a manager in Seattle, whom he never met.
Evan Turner, a former senior data scientist, told Fortune that he was managed by a Beijing-based ByteDance executive when he joined the company.
Turner worked at TikTok from April to September 2022, Fortune reported. He claimed to have been placed under an American manager in Seattle later in his employment. However, he said he was told in a video call that he would still work under the Beijing director, according to the report.
He added that he had never met the American manager and claimed that the opaque management structure differed from what TikTok executives claimed about its operation independent of ByteDance.
Turner told Fortune that he met weekly with the Beijing-based executive, which consisted of meetings of less than seven minutes to report on the progress of his tasks.
In a comment to Fortune, a TikTok spokesperson disputed the claims made by Turner and the outlet’s other sources in general terms. “These are completely unfounded claims made by disgruntled former employees,” the person said. “It is unbelievable that Fortune relies solely on individuals with clear motives and agendas to propagate anonymous lies and distortions.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Turner could not be reached by BI for comment.
These claims come as TikTok and ByteDance attempt to fend off legislation aimed at forcing a sale.
TikTok risks being banned from app stores unless ByteDance sells it to non-Chinese owners. A new bill proposing the ban passed the House last month.
U.S. lawmakers said in a statement announcing the bill that apps like TikTok are “controlled” by foreign actors and “pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.” But TikTok insisted it operated independently and tried to distance itself from ByteDance.
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