In Depth: Court Sounds Alarm About Corruption in Big Tech

A recent forum on corruption in Beijing drew attention to the issue of graft within China’s internet industry, with a compliance director pointing out that company staff can sometimes be as greedy as disgraced government officials. This comes against the backdrop of a new white paper on internet company corruption, released by the Haidian District People’s Court, which has jurisdiction over a key tech industry hub in Beijing [para. 1][para. 2].

From 2020 to 2024, the Haidian District court handled 127 criminal corruption cases connected to the internet sector, involving a total sum of over 305 million yuan (approximately $42 million). Notably, three-quarters of these cases occurred at major internet firms and accounted for more than 184 million yuan. On average, each case involved more than 1.97 million yuan. These figures may only be the tip of the iceberg, however, as the white paper notes that many corruption cases are resolved internally within companies due to concerns about litigation costs and negative publicity [para. 2][para. 3][para. 4].

Corruption within internet firms is concentrated in certain operational departments, with 82% of documented cases occurring in procurement, sales, product planning, channel operations, marketing, as well as user and content management. The nature of these departments — direct access to resources and user traffic, greater autonomy and decision-making power — increases the risk of corrupt behavior. Of the 203 individuals implicated, aged 22–53 (average age 36), about 62% held mid-to-senior level positions, yet significant corruption was also found among lower-level or outsourced staff (“small roles, big graft”), echoing similar trends seen in government. These grassroots cases amounted to around 55.7 million yuan, averaging 1.26 million yuan per case [para. 5][para. 6][para. 7][para. 8][para. 9].

A notable case is that of Gao Chuanfeng, former catering supervisor at ByteDance, who accepted over 10 million yuan in bribes from food suppliers between 2017 and 2020 in exchange for favorable contract terms. Initially sentenced to seven years in prison, his term was reduced to six upon appeal. Such cases highlight how even lower-level employees can wield significant profit-making authority once given access [para. 10][para. 11][para. 12].

The white paper also emphasized vulnerabilities linked to “soft power” in platform resource management and review processes. Between 2020 and 2024, the court handled 39 cases in this area, involving more than 67 million yuan in illegal gains. Internet platforms, effectively acting as quasi-regulators, have significant, largely unsupervised discretion — creating opportunities for abuse. For example, a defendant surnamed Guo, tasked with managing streamers on a short video platform, accepted 3 million yuan in bribes and was sentenced to five years in prison [para. 13][para. 14][para. 15][para. 16][para. 17][para. 18][para. 19][para. 20].

Combating corruption in internet companies is challenging due to complex networks, frequent updates, weak internal enforcement, and concerns over reputation and data security. Many cases persisted for years before coming to light, often exposed by anonymous tips. Investigative teams typically lack judicial authority and effective tools, and reporting to authorities can be resource-intensive and risky for business. This leads many firms to silently address corruption internally, which, the paper warns, can compromise overall anti-corruption efforts [para. 21][para. 22][para. 23][para. 24][para. 25][para. 26][para. 27][para. 28].

Prevention is recommended as the best approach, including regular job rotations, integrity training, and robust risk monitoring mechanisms to keep pace with industry innovation [para. 29][para. 30].