TikTok tracked users who watched gay content, prompting employee complaints

For at least a year, some TikTok employees were able to find what they internally described as a list of users who watch gay content on the popular app, a collection of information that sparked complaints from workers, according to former TikTok employees.

TikTok does not ask users to disclose their sexual orientation, but it cataloged videos users watched under topics including LGBT, short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, former employees said. The information collection, which could be viewed by some employees via a dashboard, included a set of affiliate users who watched these videos and their ID numbers, they said.