TikTok spied on our reporter

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘TikTok spied on our reporter’

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, May 19th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

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G7 leaders meet in Japan today, and the FT’s Cristina Criddle talks about what TikTok can do with your data. They accessed hers to find out her sources.

Cristina Criddle
I was so shocked. I was just shaking and just I mean, they knew where I was and where I was even when I wasn’t at work because it happened on my personal phone.

Marc Filippino
But first, online platforms were just handed a huge win by America’s highest court. I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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A Supreme Court ruling yesterday turned out to be pretty big for companies like Google, Twitter and Meta. The court’s decision reinforced Section 230, a law that protects tech companies from liability over user-generated content. The Supreme Court’s ruling was based on two lawsuits. They were brought by family members of victims who died in attacks carried out by the Isis terrorist group. They alleged Google and Twitter had assisted Isis, which used the tech platforms to spread its content. Here’s the FT’s Stefania Palma.

Stefania Palma
So arguably, this could not have gone better for online platforms. Basically, the Supreme Court ruled that there was a failure by these legal challenges to prove that the companies were at fault. Broadly speaking, what would have really generated an earthquake would have been if the court had touched any parts of Section 230. What they have done was basically not take up the opportunity to modify it in any way, sort of as if the status quo has been solidified. In a way you could, having this decision on the books arguably could make it harder to . . . for other types of challenges against Section 230 to be successful. In the future, they probably would have to take a different approach versus the ones that were taken by these cases.

Marc Filippino
Stefania Palma the FT’s US legal and enforcement correspondent.

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The US state of Montana just banned the social media app TikTok. American politicians are concerned that Tiktok’s parent company, ByteDance, is spying on users on behalf of the Chinese government. One of our own journalists actually discovered that she was being spied on through her TikTok account. The FT’s Cristina Criddle wrote about her experience and she joins me now. Hi, Cristina.

Cristina Criddle
Hi.

Marc Filippino
Now, we should say before we get going that we can’t confirm that ByteDance was spying on you on behalf of Beijing, but you did find out that TikTok was tracking you because an actual TikTok PR person called you and said, “You know, you should check out a story in The New York Times.”

Cristina Criddle
So I went immediately online and she was like, “You can call me back.” And I found the story. And the story had this headline which was ByteDance surveilled journalists. And I was reading through the copy, just trying to find any mention of my name, which there wasn’t. But it did mention a Financial Times journalist. And basically as much as I could get from the article was that my personal information, including some location data, had been used in an attempt to find my sources.

Marc Filippino
So you find this out, you call back the press person. What do they say?

Cristina Criddle
She said that personally she really condemned the actions. And I just said to her, “Can you confirm this is me?” She said yes. And then I asked her if she could send me the materials that TikTok had sent to the New York Times. And she said yes. So then she sent me the internal emails about the investigation that had happened, which included information saying that it was four people, two in the US, two in China, who had accessed my account and inappropriately used my data, and that those people had now left the company.

Marc Filippino
How did you feel about this? I mean, I would feel . . . Well, let’s put it this way: I would not be feeling great after learning about this.

Cristina Criddle
I was so shocked. I was just shaking and just going back. Every interaction I’d had with my sources, trying to work out when I’d met them and trying to figure out, like if they had found any of them. TikTok said the attempt was unsuccessful and they never did. And I’m inclined to believe them. But obviously, in that moment you’re very worried. I mean, they knew where I was and where I was, even when I wasn’t at work as well, because it happened on my personal phone. And it happens on an account that I have for my cat and my cat’s name. And so it was just so weird that these four random people I’ve never met, two of them in China, had managed to get into my personal information and track me. I was totally shocked.

Marc Filippino
So how does TikTok now assure users that they’re not being spied on?

Cristina Criddle
This is exactly what TikTok said it would never do. And one question I have is how available this data is throughout the company and how safe are all of our personal data. Because TikTok always said the staff in China would only have really, really restricted access to all data. And yet they say that two random employees in China accessed mine. Like what safeguards were in place to stop that from happening and what safeguards are in place now? They just haven’t told me.

Marc Filippino
You’re in many ways a special case because you do break stories about TikTok. You cover them. What should the average TikTok user take away from your story? Should they be concerned?

Cristina Criddle
This is targeted surveillance. So as you say, it’s quite unique and it’s definitely for a reason. So it raises wider questions for, as I say, politicians, activists, journalists, but for everyday people using the app, I think they just have to ask themselves, are you happy with that trade-off? Are you happy that maybe one day you might be targeted? And obviously we’re used to giving away our data for personalised advertising and things like that to social media companies. That is nothing new to us, but maybe there’s more of an awareness about it now. And I think each individual just has to ask themselves, are they willing to make that trade-off of privacy for the benefits they’re getting from the platform?

Marc Filippino
Cristina Criddle is the FT’s tech reporter out of London. Thank you so much, Cristina.

Cristina Criddle
Thank you.

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Marc Filippino
G7 countries are upping the pressure on Russia’s war machine. Officials say they’re preparing new sanctions on ships, aircraft, individuals and diamonds. This latest move comes as G7 leaders meet in Japan today. In addition to Ukraine, another key theme is pushing back against something called “economic coercion”. The FT’s Tokyo bureau chief Kana Inagaki has more on the meeting that is taking place in Hiroshima.

Kana Inagaki
So there is a special meaning as to why Japan chose Hiroshima to chair the G7 summit. Hiroshima, first of all, is the home city for the family of prime minister Fumio Kishida. And also for Kishida, nuclear disarmament because of Hiroshima, and you know, the atomic bombing that was dropped in Hiroshima, is a very big part of his political career. And that’s why for personal reasons as well, he chose Hiroshima to chair the summit.

Marc Filippino
So the G7 meeting will focus in part on economic coercion, which is using economic means to achieve political goals. Why is this a focus?

Kana Inagaki
Yeah, so I mean, there’s a long history in this for Japan. So for example, back in 2010, there was a territorial dispute with China, and Beijing retaliated by cutting off some supplies for rare earth materials. But more recently, quite a large number of Japanese nationals are detained in China. And so, you know, Japan does have an interest in addressing the issue of economic security and economic coercion. But even Japan and, you know, many of the other G7 nations do not want to name China particularly. And also, there’s a very tricky issue of how countries can actually have a unified response, for example, in terms of rolling out export controls. The legal system is different in each country. And so, you know, I think realistically, what we can expect from the G7 is going to be a strong message that the G7 is against the use of economic coercion.

Marc Filippino
Kana Inagaki is the FT’s Tokyo bureau chief.

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You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back next week for the latest business news.

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The FT News Briefing is produced by Sonja Hutson, Fiona Symon and me, Marc Filippino. Our editor is Jess Smith. We had help this week for Mollie Nugent, David da Silva, Michael Lello and Gavin Kallmann. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio, and our theme song is by Metaphor Music.

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