WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has launched a new attack against TikTok, one of the globe’s most widely used tech platforms. Late on Friday, the department alleged that TikTok has the ability to collect extensive data on users based on their views on contentious societal topics such as gun control, abortion, and religion.
In documents submitted to the federal appeals court in Washington, government attorneys stated that TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, based in Beijing, utilized an internal web-suite system known as Lark. This system allowed TikTok employees to communicate directly with ByteDance engineers in China.
According to federal officials, TikTok employees used Lark to transmit sensitive data about U.S. users. This information ended up being stored on Chinese servers and was accessible to ByteDance employees in China.
The filing reveals that one of Lark’s internal search tools allows ByteDance and TikTok employees in both the U.S. and China to collect information on users’ content or expressions, including views on sensitive topics like abortion or religion. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that TikTok had tracked users who viewed LGBTQ content through a dashboard, which the company claimed to have since deleted.
The recently filed court documents mark the government’s first significant defense in a critical legal dispute over the future of the popular social media platform, which is used by over 170 million Americans. If the company does not sever ties with ByteDance, it could face a ban in a few months under a law signed by President Joe Biden in April.
This law received bipartisan support after lawmakers and administration officials voiced concerns that Chinese authorities could compel ByteDance to surrender U.S. user data or manipulate the algorithm that populates users’ feeds to favor Beijing’s interests.
The Justice Department issued a stark warning about the potential for what it termed “covert content manipulation” by the Chinese government. It suggested that the algorithm could be engineered to shape the content that users receive.
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The Justice Department’s brief states, “By directing ByteDance or TikTok to covertly manipulate that algorithm, China could, for example, enhance its existing malign influence operations and intensify its efforts to undermine trust in our democracy and exacerbate social divisions.”
The Justice Department expressed concern that TikTok and ByteDance employees are known to engage in a practice called “heating,” where certain videos are promoted to achieve a specific number of views. While this capability allows TikTok to curate popular content and distribute it more widely, U.S. officials argue it can also be used for malicious purposes.
Federal officials are requesting the court to permit a classified version of its legal brief, which will not be accessible to the two companies.
TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek stated in a response, “Nothing in the redacted brief changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side. The TikTok ban would silence 170 million Americans’ voices, violating the First Amendment. As we’ve said before, the government has never provided proof of its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law. Today, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information. We remain confident we will prevail in court.”
In the redacted version of the court documents, the Justice Department mentioned another tool that triggered the suppression of content based on the use of certain words. Certain policies of the tool applied to ByteDance users in China, where the company operates a similar app called Douyin that adheres to Beijing’s strict censorship rules.
However, Justice Department officials stated that other policies might have been applied to TikTok users outside of China. TikTok was investigating the existence of these policies and whether they had ever been used in the U.S. in, or around, 2022, officials said.
The government cites the Lark data transfers as the reason why federal officials do not believe that Project Texas, TikTok’s $1.5 billion mitigation plan to store U.S. user data on servers owned and maintained by the tech giant Oracle, is sufficient to guard against national security concerns.
In its legal challenge against the law, TikTok has heavily relied on arguments that the potential ban violates the First Amendment because it prohibits the app from continued speech unless it attracts a new owner through a complex divestment process. It has also argued that divestment would change the speech on the platform because a new social platform would lack the algorithm that has driven its success.
In its response, the Justice Department contended that TikTok has not raised any valid free speech claims. It stated that the law addresses national security concerns without targeting protected speech and argued that China and ByteDance, as foreign entities, are not protected by the First Amendment.
TikTok has also argued that the U.S. law discriminates on viewpoints, citing statements from some lawmakers critical of what they perceived as an anti-Israel bias on the platform during its war in Gaza.
Justice Department officials dispute that argument, stating that the law at issue reflects their ongoing concern that China could weaponize technology against U.S. national security. They argue that this fear is exacerbated by demands that companies under Beijing’s control hand over sensitive data to the government. They assert that TikTok, under its current operating structure, is required to comply with those demands.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for September.
Disagree – Need more evidence and investigation before jumping to conclusions.
Agree – Concerning privacy invasion and potential manipulation of public opinion.