Press "PandaGuides" above to follow us!
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has filed a lawsuit against a former intern, identified as Tian, for allegedly tampering with internal code and disrupting model training tasks. The case, now accepted by Beijing’s Haidian District People’s Court, demands 8 million yuan (approximately $1.1 million) in damages, along with an additional 20,000 yuan for related expenses. ByteDance is also requesting a public apology from Tian.
The controversy began in October when rumors circulated online claiming that ByteDance’s large-scale AI model training had been sabotaged by an intern. On October 19, ByteDance issued a public statement confirming misconduct by an intern but clarified that some online reports were exaggerated.
The company explained that the intern had maliciously interfered with the model training tasks of a commercial technology team. However, ByteDance stressed that the incident did not impact its large-scale AI models, core operations, or online services.
Rumors suggesting losses involving "over 8,000 GPUs and tens of millions of dollars" were dismissed as significant exaggerations. ByteDance also clarified that Tian had been working as an intern in its commercialization tech team, not in its AI Lab, as some reports claimed. Following the incident, the intern was dismissed in August, and ByteDance reported the behavior to both the industry alliance and Tian's university for further action.
Despite being dismissed, Tian repeatedly denied responsibility for the sabotage, alleging that another intern was responsible for the tampering. ByteDance insiders stated that Tian showed no remorse and continued to deny wrongdoing during the company’s internal investigations.
Given the seriousness of the violation and Tian’s refusal to acknowledge the misconduct, ByteDance decided to escalate the matter to the courts. The company stated that this legal action underscores its zero-tolerance policy for behavior that compromises corporate security and aims to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The case has sparked widespread discussion on Chinese social media. Many netizens expressed support for ByteDance’s firm stance on safeguarding its technological assets:
“A big corporation like ByteDance has to take a hardline approach, or this kind of behavior will spread,” one user commented.
Another wrote, “Interns are given rare opportunities at top firms. Sabotaging their employer is not just unethical - it’s foolish.”
Some, however, criticized ByteDance for seeking such high compensation: “8 million yuan for an intern’s mistake? This feels excessive. ByteDance should clarify how they calculated the damages.”
