But when they formally complained to the company, they allege, the discrimination they experienced only got worse. The complaint, which is seeking class-action status, alleges it was ByteDance’s “standard operating procedure” to “brazenly” retaliate against workers who complain about discrimination.
“This case represents the dilemma that way too many Black professionals face today: they can ignore discrimination and let biased supervisors sabotage their careers or they can report that discrimination and suffer retaliation that often leads to being ousted by the company,” Carter and Matima wrote in their complaint.
It will be up to the EEOC to determine whether to investigate just their individual claims or investigate ByteDance for systematic patterns of discrimination and retaliation. From there, the EEOC will determine if there is a reasonable chance that ByteDance violated the country’s laws barring discrimination against people on the basis of race or disability status, said Peter Romer-Friedman, the lawyer representing Carter and Matima.
“We believe there are other people whose rights have been violated and will be violated if this pattern or practice doesn’t end,” said Romer-Friedman, who has also represented clients who have filed EEOC charges against Meta. “I’ve not seen such strong retaliation claims in a very long time in my professional opinion.”
ByteDance didn’t immediately have comment on the complaint.
In the past, TikTok has touted its efforts to cultivate an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds on its platform and in its workforce including by creating an employee diversity and inclusion council. “We believe that the diversity of our community is a huge part of what makes TikTok a rewarding and inspiring place to spend time, and we’re driven to actively promote and protect it every day,” TikTok said in a blog post in 2021.
With the complaint, the workers join a chorus of minority tech workers who have alleged unfair treatment, in an industry with paltry numbers of women and Black and Hispanic workers. Though some tech companies boosted diversity during the pandemic when they lured employees from different backgrounds and locations with remote work options, rounds of layoffs have eradicated many of the gains.
Last year, a former Black diversity recruiter at Google and others filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, alleging the search giant systematically steers Black employees into lower-level roles, pays them less and denies them promotions. Google argued earlier this year in a motion to partially dismiss the suit that the court can’t extrapolate the plaintiff’s experiences to millions of individuals who have been hired over the years.
In 2020, a Black manager and two job applicants who were rejected by Facebook filed a complaint with the EEOC, alleging that the company perpetuates discrimination through pay, promotions, evaluations and hiring practices. The case is ongoing. Facebook declined to comment.
China-based ByteDance has gained prominence in the tech industry in recent years because its video-sharing app has become one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. TikTok’s dominance among younger audiences has prompted competitors like Facebook parent Meta and YouTube to attempt to copy the success of its personalized delivery of short, engaging videos.
Matima and Carter said in interviews that they were excited to join ByteDance at first because of the impressive growth and cultural relevance of TikTok among younger generations.
“When you’re young, you’re eager and you come across an opportunity that you think that you are well suited for you, take that risk,” Carter said. “It was portrayed in the media at the time as this overnight success. I really thought I was going to be part of something meaningful.”
After starting her job in July 2022, Matima, who used to work as a lawyer, alleges she was immediately treated differently than her mostly White peers. Other colleagues were given more time to complete training modules, while she was forced to begin her sales outreach right away and train other employees. Less than two weeks after starting, she received a letter from her supervisor deeming her responsible for 75 percent of her four-person team’s sales goals.
That August, Matima filed a written complaint to the company’s Human Resources department, alleging her manager was treating her differently than her colleagues and had created a hostile work environment. The company cleared the supervisor of “wrongdoing” and later promoted him. HR said the manager was cleared in part because her colleagues had said the discrimination couldn’t be that bad since “Nnete is doing so well” in her work, the complaint alleges.
Matima also alleges she was later assigned to be Lark’s only sales representative at a diversity-focused technology conference, but was told she could not sell to anyone she met there. Her supervisor redistributed the list of leads she generated from the conference to other business development representatives, according to the complaint, hurting her ability to meet her sales quota for that quarter.
Later, Matima alleges she learned from a colleague that she was commonly referred to by managers as a “black snake” and that her direct supervisor said that “black snake” was the “spirit animal” that he associated with her.
“I can’t stress enough how dehumanizing it was to learn of that,” she said in an interview.
After Matima formally complained again about discrimination from her manager, earlier this year ByteDance let both Matima and her supervisor go, according to the complaint. The company told her she was being fired for poor performance, according to the complaint.
Carter, the TikTok ads policy manager, alleges in the complaint that in June 2022 a month after receiving “a glowing performance evaluation,” his supervisor started treating him far worse than his mostly white peers. Carter at the time was the only Black employee on the 80-person ad policy team. Carter joined the company in June 2021 as a risk analyst and then migrated over to the ad policy team in February of 2022.
Carter’s supervisor blocked him from attending meetings, where the supervisor later took credit for his ideas, Carter alleges in the complaint. He was removed from other projects altogether and at one point reassigned to work as an assistant to a White ad policy manager who held the same title, the complaint alleges. Carter’s requests to receive a different manager were denied.
In February 2023, Carter complained about racial discrimination by his manager to TikTok’s human resources department. But the company’s investigators found the manager had “engaged in no wrongdoing” and that the problem was Carter was “frustrated, angry, and tense” because of the manager’s leadership style, according to the complaint.
Afterward, Carter alleges his manager retaliated against him by giving him a negative performance evaluation based on unfounded allegations. One thing he was accused of was “slamming doors” in the office despite the fact that the doors were not capable of being slammed because they close softly, the complaint alleges.
Both Carter and Matima said in interviews their experiences at ByteDance hurt their mental health. Through the ordeal, Carter said the psychological strain was so high that he was prescribed medication to deal with anxiety. Matima said she had trouble sleeping and gained more than 20 pounds in a short amount of time because of the stress.
“I got tired of this,” Matima said in an interview. “I got tired of giving my all, going above and beyond, and being met with this.”
