TikTok created what staff described as a “kill list” of colleagues that the company wanted to force out of its London office, in moves that some employees said created a working culture of fear at the fast-growing social media group.

Several workers in the ecommerce department in London were named on the list, identified as people who the leaders of the viral video app, owned by China’s ByteDance, wanted to fire or end the contracts of, according to four people at the company with knowledge of the procedures.

One person with direct knowledge of the company’s human resources processes described it as a “manage off” list that had at least a dozen names on it. In some cases, replacements were hired while people on the list were still in their role. Some of those targeted had only been in the positions for a couple of weeks, they added.