As part of its argument to defend a law recently signed by President Biden that could force TikTok to shut down, the Justice Department now alleges that the social media app is sending information about Americans’ social views to engineers in China.
In a document presented on Friday night reviewed by the Associated Press, the Justice Department accused TikTok and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, of using an internal website system called Lark to allow TikTok employees to communicate sensitive data about U.S. users with ByteDance engineers in China.
O archiving alleges that Lark’s internal search tools allowed TikTok and ByteDance employees in the US and China to collect information about users’ content and opinions on abortion or religion.
The Justice Department argues that this is not a theoretical point of concern, but an opportunity for TikTok to covertly manipulate the algorithm of TikTok, an app where a user is presented with a series of videos based on a complex algorithm that should be adapted to a person’s interest.
“By instructing ByteDance or TikTok to covertly manipulate this algorithm, China could, for example, further its existing malign influence operations and amplify its efforts to undermine trust in our democracy and exacerbate social divisions,” said the summary. States.
Justice Department officials add that TikTok and ByteDance employees already engage in a practice called “warming,” where they may decide to promote specific videos to receive a certain number of views, which U.S. authorities say the company may use to select videos that may be divisive. .
The Justice Department also alleged that TikTok applied a tool that suppresses content based on the use of certain trigger words.
ByteDance operates a TikTok-like app called Douyin, where the company actively uses this suppression tool to comply with China’s strict censorship laws. But the DOJ says TikTok did the same thing outside of China. TikTok has been under investigation for these policies since 2022.
This request is part of a larger lawsuit between the US government and TikTok over a bill President Biden signed into law in April that will ban the Chinese-made social app used by hundreds of millions of Americans within months if ByteDance do not sell. TikTok in America for a US-based operator.
TikTok vehemently fought the bill, calling it unconstitutional. Friday’s brief was the defense of the law that the DOJ presented in DC federal court; however, TikTok argues that the document does not change the facts of the case.
“Nothing in this document changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side,” TikTok posted on X. “As we have already said, the government never presented proof of its claims, including when Congress approved this unconstitutional law. Today, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step, hiding behind classified information.
“We remain confident that we will prevail in court,” the social media company added.
The government argues that the existence of the Lark data transfer is further evidence against TikTok’s argument that Project Texas, TikTok’s $1.5 billion mitigation plan to store U.S. user data on servers. owned and maintained by Oracle, is not sufficient to protect against national security concerns.
Federal authorities are also asking the court to allow a confidential version of the legal document not accessible to the two companies, according to the AP.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for September.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
