Yu

BACKGROUND

25 The following allegations are taking from the first amended complaint (“FAC”), which was 26 filed on May 12, 2023, in the Superior Court for the County of San Francisco. Dkt. No. 1-4 (FAC). 27 Plaintiff Yintao Yu was the head of engineering of the U.S. offices of defendant ByteDance, Inc. from August 2017 until his termination in November 2018. Id. ¶ 2. ByteDance Inc. is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in San Francisco County, and it is a wholly owned subsidiary of ByteDance Ltd., a privately held corporation. Id. ¶ 3 & Dkt. No. 4 (ByteDance’s Corporate Disclosure Statement). ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company that develops social networking apps such as TikTok. Yu claims, Shortly after beginning his employment, Mr. Yu became aware that ByteDance had for years engaged in a worldwide scheme (including in California) to steal and profit from the content of others. The effort involved the use of software purposely unleashed to systematically strip user content from competitor’s websites — chiefly, Instagram and Snapchat — and populate its own video services…