Former Chinese Diplomat Worked on TikTok Content Policy, FT Says

(Bloomberg) -- A former Chinese government official decided what content should be allowed on TikTok, the Financial Times reported, citing two people close to the short-video app company.

• Cai Zheng ran ByteDance’s global content policy team in Beijing until early this year. He was previously working in China’s embassy in Tehran, the FT said, citing a deleted LinkedIn profile.
• Cai joined ByteDance in 2018 and wrote guidelines for what videos were acceptable on TikTok and other apps including Helo and Vigo Video.
• TikTok told FT that Cai wasn’t involved in developing policies, noting that he worked on regional and local teams on localization of early content policies.
• ByteDance told the newspaper it was “not a consideration in hiring Zheng that his previous role was in the public sector, and there were no conversations with government in the hiring process.”
• Cai couldn’t be reached by FT for comment.
• The former diplomat was transferred from the content policy role since January this year, the people told the paper, and his role has not since been filled.
• ByteDance told the FT that Cai had decided to move to its gaming team.
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