In a filing with a federal appeals court, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that TikTok has been collecting sensitive information about American users and transmitting it to China. The DOJ claims that TikTok has gathered data on user views regarding socially divisive topics such as abortion, religion, and gun control, potentially allowing the Chinese government to use this data to sow disruption and cast suspicion on US democratic processes.
The DOJ’s concerns are based on the use of an internal communication tool called Lark, which is similar to other workplace messaging platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams. Lark allows employees to communicate and share information but also collects a wealth of user data, including photos, internet protocol addresses, and user IDs. The government lawyers argue that the information collected by Lark ended up on Chinese servers and was accessible to employees in China, posing a risk that the Chinese government could instruct ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to manipulate TikTok’s algorithm to influence public opinion and exacerbate social divisions in the US.
The DOJ’s filing in the federal appeals court in Washington warns that China could covertly manipulate TikTok’s algorithm to promote certain narratives or suppress others, thereby shaping the national conversation to serve Chinese interests. This manipulation could amplify content that aligns with Chinese state narratives or downplay content that contradicts them, furthering China’s influence operations and undermining trust in US democracy.
There is precedent for these concerns. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that TikTok had tracked users who watched LGBTQ content through a dashboard that has since been deleted, according to ByteDance. The Biden administration has directed ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok or face a potential ban in the US, where the app has around 170 million users. TikTok has challenged the government’s actions, arguing that they infringe upon the First Amendment rights of its users and lack substantial evidence of national security risks.
To address these concerns, TikTok has proposed several measures, including offering a “kill switch” to the US government in 2022, which would have allowed the government to shut down the platform if certain rules were not followed. TikTok claims that US officials halted substantive negotiations after this proposal. Additionally, TikTok has initiated Project Texas, a $1.5 billion effort to safeguard US user data by transferring it to Oracle servers based in the US. However, federal officials are scrutinizing the effectiveness of this initiative.
The ongoing legal battle highlights the tensions between the US government and TikTok, as concerns over data privacy and national security continue to drive the debate over the app’s future in the country.