The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday accused TikTok of illegally collecting information about its users’ views on sensitive topics and censoring content at the direction of its China-based parent company. TikTok had previously filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to stop enforcement of a law that would allow the social media platform to be blocked unless it is sold.
The law, signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on April 24, requires Beijing-based parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19 or face being blocked in the U.S. if it fails to do so.
The information TikTok collects includes data about users based on their views on controversial social issues such as gun control, abortion, and religion, the Justice Department said, arguing that the short-form video app poses a national security threat.
“Collecting Americans’ data is not a protective activity,” a senior Justice Department official said in explaining the documents, many of which are classified, filed by the department with a federal appeals court.
Data Security Concerns
In particular, they report that TikTok and ByteDance used an internal web package system called Lark, which allows TikTok employees to communicate directly with ByteDance engineers in China. With its help, TikTok employees sent sensitive data about U.S. users to China, which was ultimately stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees, notes NIXsolutions. Therefore, TikTok’s proposal to store U.S. user data on Oracle-owned servers in the U.S. will not ensure its protection, the Justice Department believes.
According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of U.S. residents aged 18 to 29 use TikTok. Several billionaires have expressed willingness to acquire TikTok, but ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell its U.S. business. Oral arguments on this case will take place in court in September. We’ll keep you updated on any developments in this ongoing situation.