DOJ accuses TikTok of collecting information on religion, abortion and gun control: "A national-security threat of immense depth and scale"

The Department of Justice (DOJ) accused TikTok of collecting divisive information from its U.S. users, deriving from topics such as gun control, abortion and religion. Friday's indictment is the latest chapter in a legal battle to defend a law that would lead to the sale of the social network.

In a filing in federal court in Washington, the DOJ argued that a system known as Lark allows employees of TikTok or its Chinese parent, ByteDance, to collect information about its users. Lark would also allow the social network's team to communicate directly with company engineers in China.

"Given TikTok's broad reach within the United States, the capacity for China to use TikTok's features to achieve its overarching objective to undermine American interests creates a national-security threat of immense depth and scale."Department of Justice.

TikTok used this system, according to the court document, to collect sensitive data from its users on U.S. soil. This information would then be stored on servers in China, which ByteDance workers would have access to.

"That algorithm can be manually manipulated, and its location in China would permit the Chinese government to covertly control the algorithm, and thus secretly shape the content that American users receive," reads the filing, picked up by AFP.

The First Amendment argument

The technology company argues that "the Constitution is on our side." According to them, banning its use would silence the voices of 170 million Americans, "violating the First Amendment."

In its recent court filing, however, the DOJ asserts that because the law focuses on foreign ownership of the social network, it has little to do with the First Amendment. Instead, they insisted, the focus of the rule is that its Chinese owner presents a real threat to the country's security. In the words of a senior agency official reported by AFP:

"It's clear that the Chinese government has for years been pursuing large, structured datasets of Americans through all sorts of manner, including malicious cyber activity; including efforts to buy that data from data brokers and others, and including efforts to build sophisticated AI models that can utilize that data."
Department of Justice.

TikTok, counting down?

In April, President Biden initiated legislation to force TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent. The social network has until mid-January of next year to find a buyer. If it fails to do so, it will become banned throughout the United States.

The company says that the requirement is unenforceable, let alone on time. The Administration could extend the deadline, but so far there is no indication that it plans to do so.

ByteDance also stated that it does not plan to sell TikTok. To avoid this - and also to avoid being blocked - it will have to defend its case at the oral hearings in September. In case it loses this judicial instance, it would still have one recourse left: the Supreme Court of Justice.