TikTok’s parent company in China reportedly planned to use the platform to track the location of specific American citizens.

The team that was going to track American citizens was ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department, according to a report in Forbes. The person who oversees that department is Beijing-based executive Song Ye, who reports to ByteDance co-founder and CEO Rubo Liang.

The team is supposed to investigate alleged misconduct by current and former employees, but has allegedly in multiple instances “planned to collect TikTok data about the location of a U.S. citizen who had never had an employment relationship with the company,” the report said, citing documents that Forbes viewed.

It’s not clear whether the team collected the location and data of the targeted individuals, the report said, adding that the intended use of the data was to “surveil individual American citizens, not to target ads or any of these other purposes.”

Forbes said that TikTok is reportedly close to signing a contract with the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) after the committee has been investigating the platform to see if the Chinese government is accessing data on American citizens.

President Joe Biden (D) has been far friendlier to TikTok than former President Donald Trump (R), who repeatedly warned about the danger that the platform could pose to Americans.

The story comes after lawyers for the company told U.S. lawmakers that in order for data on U.S. citizens to be accessed, only limited “authorized personnel” would be allowed to under “protocols being developed with the U.S. Government.”

“TikTok appears to remain — despite the claims of its US executives — beholden to its China-based leadership,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) tweeted. “With each new report, there’s further evidence that TikTok’s claimed ‘independence’ is illusory.”

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee, responded to the story by saying that it was “clear TikTok is just the arm of the Chinese Communist Party.”

“@GOPoversight has pressed for clarification from the social media company on their data sharing practices,” Comer said. “Any failure to cooperate is a serious national security threat. Republicans will hold TikTok accountable.”

New York Times tech reporter Ryan Mac noted separately that it was “kind of telling” that TikTok CEO Shou Chew “rarely does interviews, and when he does it’s never with a journalist and usually with billionaire investors.”

“Multiple stories have come out on the company’s data practices, its surveillance tactics, and its relationship with its Chinese parent and execs who call the shots,” he continued. “The company and its CEO rarely engage with the press on the substance of those stories.”

Students at a California high school have demanded officials fire a male teacher who was caught on video last week allegedly saying he wanted to “slam” a female student’s face against a wall.

Robert Bean, an English teacher at Cajon High School in San Bernardino, was placed on administrative leave after a student posted a video to TikTok on October 12 by a user named @cajon_student, where a male voice could be heard saying he allegedly wanted to physically attack a student.

“She thinks she’s funny? She’s a rude, defiant little brat kid that I just want to slam her face up against the wall,” Bean said, according to the TikTok user. “That’s how angry I get … because I’m old-school, guys.”

Im a student at Cajon Highschool and wanted to bring light to what mr bean says on a regular basis along with different things such as calling students and other teachers slurs

♬ original sound – Cajon Highschool Student

Students have also accused Bean, 53, of displaying a long history of inappropriate behavior.

“Im a student at Cajon Highschool and wanted to bring light to what mr bean says on a regular basis along with different things such as calling students and other teachers slurs,” @cajon_student said in the video caption.

The video garnered more than 96,000 views and 550 comments, several of which made other accusations against Bean with past and current students.

“I’m shocked that it’s still happening,” Megan Soult, one of Bean’s former students, said, according to local media. “I’m shocked that he’s still there.”

Soult reported Bean to the school in 2009 for abusive behavior, but said officials did not take action.

“I was bullied and harassed by him at a time when I really needed guidance, and I’ll remember it forever,” she said.

Soult, who graduated 12 years ago from Cajon High, told Insider that Bean had embarrassed and humiliated her in front of the class with private and personal medical information.

“To see this come up this many years later and hear about how many people have brought this to the attention of the administrative staff at the school, and nothing has still been done is just baffling,” she said.

Mia Munoz, a senior at the high school, told KTLA, “not only was it unprofessional, that shouldn’t have been on campus at all.”

San Bernardino City Unified School District told Insider Monday that officials placed Bean on “paid administrative leave.”

In a statement to Fox L.A., the district said officials have been looking into the allegations posted on social media, adding they could not share more about the situation as they are required to protect employee privacy.

Bean has not responded to requests for comment by media outlets as of publication.

An anonymous student told local media that the district’s actions won’t fix the problem, and that if and when Bean returns to the classroom, the students “plan on staging a planned absence from all periods of his class.”