KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 12): Three hundred current employees at TikTok and its parent company ByteDance previously worked for Chinese state media publications, according to Forbes.

Citing public employee LinkedIn profiles it reviewed, the magazine on Thursday (Aug 11) reported that twenty-three of these profiles appear to have been created by current ByteDance directors, who manage departments overseeing content partnerships, public affairs, corporate social responsibility and “media cooperation”.

It said fifteen indicated that current ByteDance employees are also concurrently employed by Chinese state media entities, including Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International and China Central/China Global Television.

(These organisations were among those designated by the US State Department as “foreign government functionaries” in 2020.)

Forbes said fifty of the profiles represent employees that work for or on TikTok, including a content strategy manager who was formerly a chief correspondent for Xinhua News.

The LinkedIn profiles reviewed by Forbes revealed connections between TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and the propaganda arm of the Chinese government, which has been investing heavily in using social media to amplify disinformation that serves the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese state media outlets have a large presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but so far, they have been relatively quiet on TikTok.

The magazine said that unlike the other major platforms, however, TikTok does not currently label accounts controlled by Chinese state media.

It added that in March, TikTok announced a plan to label “some” state media entities, but a Forbes review of China’s largest state media entities on the platform, including China News Service, Xinhua News Service, CGTN and the Global Times, found no added context or labels indicating the accounts’ state control.

Forbes said ByteDance and TikTok did not contest that the 300 LinkedIn profiles represent current employees or deny their connections to Chinese state media.

It said none of the state media outlets named in the story responded to a request for comment.