Former activists in Hong Kong’s 2019 fight for greater democratic freedoms are now the latest subjects in China’s decades-long experiment in political control.

A former executive at ByteDance claimed Chinese Communist Party officials had access to a “god credential” on TikTok that allowed them to track protesters and activists.

A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the popular short-video app TikTok, says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company

The Chinese government accessed user data using a superuser credential—or “god credential”—alleges a former ByteDance executive.

Ruling party accessed user data including Sim card ID and IP addresses, former executive alleges in legal filing

A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the popular short-video app TikTok, says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong.

TikTok's owner ByteDance has been accused of allowing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to access the data of Hong Kong civil rights activists and protesters. Users who uploaded "protest-related content" were also identified and monitored,