A ByteDance app called Feishu that holds nearly all of TikTok’s internal communications was subject to a “wide-ranging inspection” before the CCP’s 20th National Congress last fall. But TikTok says no proprietary information was accessed.
By Emily Baker-White, Forbes Staff
TikTok’s internal workplace collaboration platform, which hosts some of the company’s most sensitive information, was inspected by the Chinese government ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, Forbes has learned.
Conducted in October of 2022, the review covered a broad swath of internal information related to Feishu, TikTok’s main workplace tool, including “product network security, data security, personal information, and daily operations,” according to a document reviewed by Forbes.
Feishu is a ByteDance product comparable to Google Docs and Microsoft Office that hosts TikTok employees’ documents, chats, meetings, calendars, and other business records. Over the past year, Forbes has reviewed hundreds of internal TikTok materials stored in Feishu, including attorney-client privileged information, draft content policies, and information related to TikTok’s United States Data Security entity, which is supposed to cordon off American user data.
This is the first report revealing a direct level of access by Chinese government officials to a product that hosts some of TikTok’s most secret information, and the documents show that — at least for now — TikTok remains reliant on its parent company ByteDance’s systems, which are subject to Chinese regulatory control.
Seth and Haurek did not answer questions about whether ByteDance has previously made TikTok employee communications available to the Chinese government.
The review was referenced in a set of briefings TikTok security personnel received from ByteDance in October 2022 about preparations for the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress — a weeklong event, occuring once every five years, where the party selects its leadership committee and defines its strategy for the next five year term. The company had tightened its security protocols and increased the number of people it had working on content moderation, steps not unlike those U.S. tech companies took ahead of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
But it had also opened its doors to Chinese regulators for an “on-site regulatory inspection,” and “fulfill[ed] ad hoc inspection requirements from the National Radio and Television Administration (Beijing), Cyberspace Administration of China, National Government Offices Administration, and Cybersecurity corps,” according to a document reviewed by Forbes. Along with Feishu, which is also used by some domestic Chinese companies, the inspection also covered products including Toutiao, Douyin and Ocean Engine, which are available in China.
TikTok was not among the covered products, according to ByteDance spokesperson Jodi Seth. “While some ByteDance products are not available in China, other products like Douyin and Toutiao, do operate in China and follow Chinese laws and regulations. The inspections referenced in the document are to test for and guard against privacy and security vulnerabilities,” she said.
When asked whether the inspection gave Chinese regulators access to proprietary TikTok information within Feishu, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said, “no, because they were not focused on employee communications.” Seth and Haurek did not answer questions about whether ByteDance has previously made TikTok employee communications available to the Chinese government.
After publication of this story, Seth provided an additional statement: “We have not made internal employee communications available to the government as part of this review. We would only provide such communications for a specific purpose, such as an investigation of criminal activity, in accordance with local law the same way we comply with valid legal requests in any country.”
Xiao Qiang, the head of UC Berkeley’s China Internet Center, told Forbes that government inspections of tech companies in China are routine, especially before big events like the National Congress. As for whether such inspections could include a review of the TikTok records stored within Feishu, “it depends on the level of the inspections,” he said.
Got a tip about TikTok or ByteDance? Reach out to Emily Baker-White securely at ebakerwhite@forbes.com or emilybakerwhite@protonmail.com.
Documents reviewed by Forbes also showed that preparations for the 20th National Congress went beyond inspections; one noted that ByteDance planned to do “enhanced public sentiment monitoring.” Forbes previously reported on word lists used by ByteDance to track public conversations on dozens of topics ran
