The U.S. Justice Department has launched a new onslaught against one of the world’s most popular tech companies, accusing TikTok of its ability to glean vast troves of information from its users by exploiting views on divisive social issues such as gun control, abortion and religion.
TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance use an internal network suite system called Lark that allows TikTok employees to communicate directly with BitDance, government lawyers wrote in documents filed late Friday with a federal appeals court in Washington. Group of engineers jumping around talking in China.
Federal officials said TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive data about U.S. users, which ended up being stored on servers in China and accessible to ByteDance employees in China.
One of Lark’s internal search tools allowed ByteDance and TikTok employees in the United States and China to collect information about user content or expression, including views on sensitive topics such as abortion or religion, the filing said. Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that TikTok tracked users who viewed LGBTQ content through a dashboard that the company said it had removed.
New court filings are government’s first major defense in case The legal battle that ensued The future of the popular social media platform used by more than 170 million Americans. Under a law signed by President Joe Biden in April, The company could face a ban In a few months if it doesn’t get disconnected from the byte bounce.
The measure is Passed with bipartisan support Lawmakers and government officials have previously worried that Chinese authorities could manipulate algorithms in user information flows to force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion toward Beijing’s interests.
The U.S. Department of Justice has sternly warned the Chinese government of the possibility of so-called “covert content manipulation,” saying the algorithm may be designed to shape the content users receive.
“By instructing ByteDance or TikTok to covertly manipulate the algorithm, China could further its existing malign influence operations and increase efforts to undermine trust in our democracy and exacerbate social divisions,” the brief said.
The Justice Department said the concerns were more than theoretical and that TikTok and ByteDance employees allegedly engaged in a practice known as “heating,” which involves promoting certain videos to gain a certain number of views. While this capability allows TikTok to curate popular content and distribute it more widely, U.S. officials believe it can also be used for nefarious purposes.
Federal officials asked the court to approve a confidential version of the legal brief, which the companies have not been able to obtain.
TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek said in a statement that nothing in the redacted brief “changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side.”
“A TikTok ban would silence the voices of 170 million Americans and violate the First Amendment,” Haurek said. “As we have said before, the administration has never presented evidence for its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law. Today, the government is once again taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information and we remain confident we will prevail in court.
In a redacted version of the court filing, the Justice Department said another tool triggered content suppression based on the use of certain words. Some of the tool’s policies apply to ByteDance’s users in China, where the company operates a similar app called Douyin, which follows Beijing’s strict censorship rules.
But Justice Department officials said other policies may apply to TikTok users outside China. Officials said TikTok is investigating whether these policies exist and whether they were used in the United States in or around 2022.
The administration cited the Lark transfer as an example of why federal officials don’t believe Project Texas, TikTok’s $1.5 billion mitigation plan to store U.S. user data on servers owned and maintained by tech giant Oracle, is enough to protect against state Security Question.
In its legal challenge to the law, TikTok relies heavily on the following arguments: A potential ban Violation of the First Amendment Because it bans the app from continuing to publish speech unless it attracts a new owner through a complex divestment process. It also believes divestment will change discourse on the platform as it will create a version of TikTok lack of algorithm This drives its success.
In its response, the Justice Department argued that TikTok did not raise any valid free speech claim, said the law addressed national security concerns but did not target protected speech, and argued that China and ByteDance, as foreign entities, were not subject to the first Amendment protection.
TikTok has also argued that U.S. law discriminates against viewpoints, citing statements from some lawmakers criticizing what they see as the platform’s anti-Israel leanings during the Gaza war.
Justice Department officials disputed that argument, saying the law reflected their ongoing concerns that China could weaponize technology to harm U.S. national security. They said the requirement that companies controlled by Beijing hand over sensitive data to the government would make it difficult for them to do so. This concern has become more serious. Under its current operating structure, TikTok needs to respond to these needs, they said.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for September.
