ByteDance revealed plans to widely restrict employees' internal self-funded use of Claude, Codex, and other AI tools

ByteDance will broadly restrict employees' internal self-paid use of Claude, Codex, and other AI tools, starting this month, banning external AI access to L4 level code repositories and Lianxiu documents, covering the entire company. This move has triggered internal discussions, with Vice President of Technology Hong Dingkun responding that the consequences of leaks of L3 and above content are severe, and that promoting products should not force the disabling of other choices. The company had previously banned third-party AI tools such as Cursor and Windsurf in batches in May 2025.