The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on Friday that TikTok and its Chinese parent company collected sensitive data from U.S. users, according to court filings.
The Department of Justice Court filings The Justice Department alleged that TikTok was collecting American user data on sensitive topics such as abortion, gun control and religion, and claimed the app was a “potential threat to the national security of the United States.” The Justice Department's latest filing is the first in a series of federal lawsuits filed against TikTok. Litigation TikTok filed in May after President Joe Biden signed a bill giving the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, the choice to formally exit the platform by January 2025 or risk a total ban in the United States. (Related article: Ex-TikTok employee claims U.S. executives were “fully complicit” in “passing U.S. data to China.”)
TikTok argued that the law, which would require it to either sell or ban the popular app, was an infringement of the free speech rights of its 170 million U.S. users. statement In Saturday's X post.
TOPSHOT – (LR) TikTok CEO Shaw Ziu Chu and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrive to testify at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “Big Tech Companies and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis,” in Washington, DC on January 31, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
“U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that ByteDance and TikTok pose potential threats to U.S. national security because: [People’s Republic of China] “There are two primary vectors of attack against the United States,” the latest filing states: “foreign malign influence targeting Americans and the collection of sensitive data about Americans.” (Related: Chinese Embassy reportedly directly lobbied Congress against TikTok bill)
In its latest filing, the Justice Department alleges that TikTok and ByteDance allowed employees to use software tools that allowed the apps to collect user information and censor certain content at the discretion of their Chinese-owned parent companies.
“One of these tools allowed ByteDance and TikTok employees in the U.S. and China to collect large amounts of user information based on users' content and expression, including their views on gun control, abortion and religion,” the filing said. “Another tool included policies that permitted both the collection of large amounts of user information and the triggering of on-platform content suppression based on users' use of certain words.”
In a statement on X, TikTok reiterated its view that the lawsuit is “unconstitutional” and that the Department of Justice has not yet presented “proof of its claims.”
“Nothing in this petition changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side,” TikTok said in a statement in response to the court filing on X. “Banning TikTok would silence the voices of 170 million Americans and violate the First Amendment.” (Related: Prominent Democrat trying to put the brakes on TikTok bill is tapping former staffer to promote app)
“As we have said before, the government has never presented any evidence to support its claims, either when Parliament passed this unconstitutional bill,” TikTok said in a statement. “Once again today, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information. We are confident we will prevail in court.”
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Sept. 16, according to recent court filings.
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