TikTok 'spied on journalist via cat's account'

2023-05-06

TikTok ‘spied on journalist via cat’s account’: Tech workers snooped on reporter in effort to identify sources in her critical story about the controversial Chinese firm

Financial Times journalist Cristina Criddle was targeted by tech workers
TikTok’s parent company blamed actions on the ‘misconduct of a few individuals’

A British journalist was spied on by TikTok in an attempt to identify the sources of her critical stories about the controversial Chinese firm.

Tech workers snooped on the location of Financial Times technology correspondent Cristina Criddle through an account she had set up in the name of her pet cat, Buffy.

The hack of Ms Criddle’s and another journalist’s phones were blamed on the ‘misconduct of a few individuals’ by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance when the story first emerged in December.

But experts say significant effort must have been put into tracing her via the cat account, which did not mention her real name and had only 170 followers.

Hackers attempted to compare her IP address – the unique number for every device connected to the internet – with work colleagues suspected of briefing her, in order to prove they had been in proximity to each other.

Pictured: Cristina Criddle (file photo). The hack of Ms Criddle’s and another journalist’s phones were blamed on the ‘misconduct of a few individuals’ by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance when the story first emerged in December

Pictured: Ms Criddle’s pet cat Buffy. Experts say significant effort must have been put into tracing her via the cat account, which did not mention her real name and had only 170 followers

Speaking about it for the first time, Ms Criddle told the BBC that the ‘really chilling’ episode was ‘quite violating’.

She added: ‘I’m super-careful now. I have to make sure that there is no chance that my devices are being tracked. If my location was being monitored 24/7, that’s not just limited to my actions at work… this was in my personal life as well.’

ByteDance has said it ‘deeply regrets’ the ‘significant violation’ of its rules and fired those involved.

Asked about the incident in March ahead of a US congressional committee, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew claimed: ‘I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it.’

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