Leaked documents show that TikTok is instructing employees to actively downplay its Chinese ownership, among other tricky subjects.

Two documents — TikTok Master Messaging and TikTok Key Messages — were created in March 2020 and February 2021 respectively, and were last updated in August 2021.

Among the commands in the Master Messaging documents are “Emphasise TikTok as a brand/platform”, followed by “downplay the parent company ByteDance”, “downplay the China association”, and “downplay AI.”

The TikTok Key Messages document contains various “soundbites” when questioned by the media about “China/Bytedance Ownership”.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about TikTok right now,” one soundbites reads. “The reality is that the TikTok app isn’t even available in China.”

Others include:

“We have not and will not share user data with the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked”

“We have a number of measures in place to significantly reduce access to user data, and we continue to build those out.” TikTok published this talking point on its own blog.

“TikTok is a global company”

“The TikTok app doesn’t even operate in China.”

“TikTok is highly localised in its experience and operations, which means <> has a lot of independence in the day-to-day operations of the platform.”