Social media giant ByteDance has reported 125 internal misconduct cases on the mainland, including bribery and misappropriation of company property, during the first half of this year, which resulted in either the dismissal or arrest of the offending employees.

About 88 ByteDance employees were sacked, while 17 others were taken into custody by public security authorities for the reported offences, according to a statement on Monday by the company’s Douyin business unit, which oversees TikTok’s domestic sibling Douyin, news aggregator Jinri Toutiao and Xigua Video.

Beijing-based ByteDance “has always maintained a ‘zero-tolerance’ attitude towards corruption and bribery”, the company said. “If any violation of laws and regulations or the code of conduct for employees is found, the employees involved will be dismissed and never be employed once the case is confirmed.”

The hardline stance by the world’s largest unicorn shows the lengths it is taking to retain and attract talent, as the company boosts productivity and continues to restructure its operations this year.

In March, ByteDance pledged to raise annual bonuses for high-performing employees even as it deals with the latest crisis facing its flagship platform TikTok in the United States.

Monday’s statement by ByteDance singled out several cases. One involved three ecommerce department employees - with the surnames Li, Zhu and Xu - who were found to have “received facilitation fees to seek an undue advantage for external influencers or vendors”. The police took into custody these offenders.

Another case involved seven employees at ByteDance’s local services unit who were found “providing improper assistance to external merchants and illegally taking the company’s assets”. These offenders were sent to the public security authority.

Separately, Douyin said it had dismissed 136 employees and reported 23 others to the police for various offences last year.

ByteDance’s peers have conducted similar actions. Tencent Holdings last year reported 70 internal misconduct cases that resulted in the dismissal of more than 120 employees, while nearly 20 others were referred to the police.

Food delivery and local services operator Meituan said it assisted the police with the criminal investigation of about 93 people last year.

 - SCMP