ByteDance

The European Commission issued preliminary findings that TikTok breaches Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, determining that minors' accounts default to 'public' visibility with content eligible for recommendation in the For You feed, that profile photos remain visible to all users, that 'private' accounts remain discoverable via follower/following lists, and that high-level protections are opt-in rather than default. TikTok faces a potential fine of up to 6% of ByteDance's global annual revenue if a final non-compliance decision is issued. TikTok disputed the assessment, saying it would review the findings and pointed to its existing teen-account privacy and safety features. The case is part of a wider DSA investigation opened against TikTok in February 2024 that also covers the platform's recommender-system design.

South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) fined TikTok 10.3 billion won (~$7 million) on July 23, 2026 for unlawfully collecting cross-app user data to target advertising without obtaining proper consent, ordering corrective measures and public disclosure. The PIPC stated that consent must be freely given after users are fully informed how their data will be processed, and clarified that the rule applies to overseas companies processing Korean users' data, including transfers to affiliates located outside Korea's jurisdiction. The action follows a pattern of international data-protection enforcement against TikTok, including a €530 million Irish fine in 2025 for transferring European user data to China and a UK fine over children's data handling; separately, Korea's Communication Commission has scrutinized TikTok Korea's cash-reward promotions.

TikTok removed or shadow-banned at least two MalaysiaNow videos in July 2026 - a July 6 report on a Greenpeace-led protest against Lynas rare-earth operations, and a July 7 press-conference video featuring lawyers representing youths killed by police - citing only 'integrity and authenticity' issues. It was the third MalaysiaNow video removed from TikTok in 2026 without further explanation, following earlier removals of coverage on Malaysia's anti-corruption commission chief and opposition parties. The removals occurred while TikTok operates under Malaysia's MCMC content-licensing regime; the same videos remained available on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Coverage noted allegations of a pro-Israel moderation bias following TikTok's 2025 US ownership restructuring.

Department of Justice filed lawsuit alleging TikTok collected personal data from millions of children under 13 without parental consent, built backdoors allowing children to bypass age verification, and failed to honor deletion requests.

TikTok implemented multiple layoff rounds: May 2024 saw 'large swaths' of operations and marketing workforce cut from roughly 1,000 affected employees; May and July 2025 saw over 100 TikTok Shop e-commerce employees fired or left with US team members replaced by personnel from China and Singapore; August 2025 saw 'several hundred' UK content moderators replaced by AI-powered alternatives; October 2025 saw approximately 15 TikTok Music employees in the US and Latin America terminated.

In December 2022, ByteDance confirmed employees used TikTok to track the location of journalists reporting critically on the company through their IP addresses. ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo said the misconduct 'significantly undermined' public trust. The company fired four employees including chief internal auditor Chris Lepitak, while executive Song Ye resigned. The DOJ opened a criminal investigation led by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Leaked audio from 80+ internal TikTok meetings published by BuzzFeed in June 2022 revealed China-based ByteDance employees repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users. The recordings contained 14 statements from nine employees indicating engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022. One employee stated 'Everything is seen in China.' A 2024 DOJ filing confirmed TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive US user data that wound up stored on Chinese servers.

TikTok ran an internal experiment from roughly December 2021 to January 2022 in which a safety feature was intentionally withheld from a control group comprising about 10% of US users, in order to measure the feature's impact on user engagement and platform 'stickiness.' The control group was not limited to adults; minors were deliberately included. TikTok's December 2021 public announcement of the safety feature did not disclose that it was being withheld from part of the user base. The experiment came to light in 2026 alongside Kentucky Attorney General litigation records showing TikTok executives knew certain safety tools were ineffective but treated them as 'useful talking points' with policymakers. On August 20, 2026, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal sent TikTok a formal letter demanding it identify every employee who approved the experiment and disclose all similar experiments involving withheld safety features since January 1, 2019.

On July 7, 2020, ByteDance announced it would withdraw TikTok from the Hong Kong market following the National Security Law's passage. A TikTok spokesperson stated users in Hong Kong would no longer be able to download or use the app. The withdrawal avoided putting ByteDance in the position of either refusing Chinese government data requests (risking mainland operations) or complying with requests that could identify protesters. This was notable given ByteDance's Chinese ownership and mainland China operations.

Musical.ly (TikTok's predecessor) settled FTC allegations of illegally collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. At the time, it was the largest civil penalty ever obtained in a children's privacy case.

ByteDance established an internal Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee in 2014. Vice President Zhang Fuping serves as the company's CCP Committee Secretary. According to a report submitted to the Australian Parliament, Zhang stated that ByteDance should 'transmit the correct political direction, public opinion guidance and value orientation into every business and product line.' In 2018, founder Zhang Yiming publicly apologized after China shut down ByteDance's app Neihan Duanzi, stating the app was 'incommensurate with socialist core values.'