San Francisco - Apple has reportedly threatened to sack a hardware engineer after it was found that she posted a video on Chinese short-form video app TikTok with basic iPhone security tips.
According to a report in The Verge, Apple employee Paris Campbell said she was told that she breached the company “policy by identifying herself as an Apple employee and posting about Apple-related topics”.
According to the report, she breached the company's social media policy that warns employees against posting about customers, colleagues, or confidential information online.
"We want you to be yourself, but you should also be respectful in posts, tweets, and other online communications," according to the company's internal document.
Campbell has 439,000 followers on TikTok.
She responded to a TikTok user last week who had lost her iPhone, then received threatening text messages.
In a response video, Campbell, who most recently worked as a repair technician at Apple Retail, said that for the last six years, "I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain company that likes to talk about fruit".
"Your phone is actually useless to them, and you're the only person that can save them, and I suggest that you don't," she posted in the response video last week.
The video went viral and garnered five million views in roughly 24 hours.
She later received a call from a manager, telling her to remove the video or she would face disciplinary action "up to and including termination".
Over the last weekend, Campbell posted another video titled "dear Apple", in which she revealed her identity as an Apple employee.
"I've never actually identified myself as an Apple employee until this video. Funny thing is, though, after reviewing the social media policies... nowhere does it say I can't identify myself as an Apple employee publicly, just that I shouldn't do so in a way that makes the company look bad," she posted.
Last year, Apple terminated two activists for allegedly sharing confidential information.
However, Campbell was quoted as saying that her videos don't contain any confidential information.
IANS