Employee Claims Apple Has Threatened Termination Over Viral TikTok Video

An Apple employee says that Apple, a company she has worked at for over six years, is threatening to fire her over a viral TikTok video she made where she provides basic, commonsense, and publicly available tips on what to do if your iPhone is stolen.

apple employee viral tiktok firing claim
The employee, Paris Campbell, has nearly half a million followers on TikTok, with over 17.7 million likes at the time of writing. Until a video last week, Campbell had never publicly identified herself as an Apple employee; instead, she often shared her work as a stand-up comedian and reaction videos to funny and quirky content posted on the app.

A week ago, Campbell responded to another person's TikTok in which they explained they had their ‌iPhone‌ stolen and then received messages from the thieves threatening to sell their private information on the black market. The victim had tracked their ‌iPhone‌ with Find My and found out it was in China.

Specifically, in their messages to the victim, the thieves tried to convince them to remove the stolen ‌iPhone‌ from their Apple ID account to bypass Activation Lock. Doing so is strongly recommended against as that would render the device usable and benefit no one but the criminals.

In her video responding to the distressed victim, Campbell began by saying, "I can't tell you how exactly I know this information, but I can tell you for the last six years I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain company that likes to talk a lot about fruit." Campbell goes on to strongly advise against removing the ‌iPhone‌ from the ‌Apple ID‌ and goes on to explain Activation Lock.

As a reminder, Activation Lock automatically requires users to unlock their ‌iPhone‌, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch after it's been erased with their ‌Apple ID‌ password if it's still connected to an account. Without the ‌Apple ID‌'s password or the password used to unlock the device previously, the ‌iPhone‌, in this case, is rendered entirely useless.

Campbell, in her video, provides only handy tips for the victim and reassurance that despite the thieves' claim they have access to private information, they don't. Campbell concludes the video by advising the victim to ignore the messages. The video has over 7.4 million views at the time of writing.

Just a few days after posting that video, Campbell posted another video explaining what had happened. She said she received a call from her manager telling her that she had breached Apple policy by publicly identifying herself as an Apple employee. Apple's policy, however, does not limit employees from publicly identifying themselves as Apple employees but only requires them to maintain Apple's image and reputation in their online presence.

Dozens of Apple engineers publicly identify themselves as Apple employees on Twitter, often interacting with the community and sharing their excitement about what they have been working on post-announcement.

"If you ask me, reinforcing the public's confidence in Apple's security is not something that makes the company look bad, especially when it reaches 5 million people," Campbell said in her follow-up video. "If we want to get technical, I've never actually identified myself as an Apple employee until this video," she continued.

Her manager told her that Apple does not pay for her to "make TikTok videos," and Campbell agrees, saying it's just something she enjoys doing in her spare time."Apple, you didn't hire me to make TikTok videos, but apparently, I'm really good at it. Talking about your products and tech in general and how people can deal with it in their everyday life is kind of the thing that I'm best at," Campbell said.

"Maybe instead of reprimanding me, you should be looking through the comments and seeing the amount of people that are thanking me." "I work for Apple and would very much like to stay working for Apple. For the last almost six years, I have been a stellar employee, and that's evident by getting exceeded expectations on almost every single one of my reviews."

"There was a time when Apple used to respect when people did things that are really wacky and out of the box. This is definitely wacky and out of the box," Campbell concludes her video by saying. Since posting the follow-up video, Campbell's employment status remains unknown, and she has not addressed the controversy since. We've reached out to Apple for comment.

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Triad

Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen

Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself. Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...
CarPlay Hero

Apple Releases Wireless CarPlay Fix

Wednesday April 16, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
If you have been experiencing issues with wireless CarPlay in your vehicle lately, it was likely due to a software bug that has now been fixed. Apple released iOS 18.4.1 today, and the update's release notes say it "addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles." If wireless CarPlay was acting up for you, updating your iPhone to iOS 18.4.1 should...
iOS 18

iOS 18.5 Includes Only a Few Changes So Far

Monday April 21, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes. The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps. In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner. In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
top stories 2025 04 19

Top Stories: iPhone 17 Pro Rumors, CarPlay Bug Fix, and More

Saturday April 19, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
This week saw rumor updates on the iPhone 17 Pro and next-generation Vision Pro, while a minor iOS 18.4.1 update delivered not just security fixes but also a fix for some CarPlay issues. We also looked ahead at what else is in Apple's pipeline for the rest of 2025 and even the 20th-anniversary iPhone coming in 2027, so read on below for all the details on these stories and more! iPhone 17 ...
ipad air windows 11 arm

M2 iPad Air Runs Windows 11 ARM via Emulation, Thanks to EU Rules

Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect. As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...

Top Rated Comments

sfwalter Avatar
35 months ago
Sad when corporate policies get in way of someone trying to help. It’s not like she was giving away any trade secrets.
Score: 72 Votes (Like | Disagree)
q64ceo Avatar
35 months ago
I get a feeling that there's more to the story here.
Score: 51 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Smici Avatar
35 months ago
The biggest mistake what she had done is that she used tiktok.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Skiefire Avatar
35 months ago
The initial reprimand was probably an overreaction by a numpty manager at Apple, but her followup criticising them publicly will be what gets her fired.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pankeborg Avatar
35 months ago
Specifically, in their messages to the victim, the thieves tried to convince them to remove the stolen ‌iPhone‌ from their Apple ID ('https://www.macrumors.com/guide/apple-id/') account to bypass Activation Lock.

I don't get it. Obviously you shouldn't follow the advice of the thieves that stole your phone. You don't need a tiktoker telling you that.

I also don't get why the tiktoker has to mention that she works for Apple. What she says after that is public information.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Loismustdie1 Avatar
35 months ago
That's why you never broadcast where you work when doing PERSONAL social media engagement. Even then, you need to be very careful what you say if you choose to discuss a product your job creates or promotes. Things can get hairy really quickly otherwise.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)