The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on Friday that TikTok and its Chinese parent company collected sensitive data from its US users, according to court documents.
The DOJ reported in court proceedings that TikTok had been collecting data from US users about their views on sensitive issues such as abortion, gun control and religion, arguing that the app poses a “potential threat to US national security “. The latest DOJ filings follow a federal lawsuit Tik Tok archived in May after President Joe Biden signed legislation that gave the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, until January 2025 to formally get rid of the platform or risk an outright ban in the US
TikTok argued that the law, which required the popular app to be sold or banned, is a violation of free speech for its 170 million US users, according to a statement in an X post on Saturday.
“The US intelligence community assesses that ByteDance and TikTok pose a potential threat to US national security because they could be used by [People’s Republic of China] against the United States in two primary ways,” the most recent filing says. “Malignant foreign influence targeting American persons and collection of sensitive data from American persons.”
The DOJ alleged in its most recent filing that TikTok and ByteDance allowed their employees to use software tools that allowed the app to collect user information and censor certain content at the discretion of the Chinese-owned parent company.
“One such tool allowed ByteDance and TikTok employees in the United States and China to collect massive user information based on user content or expressions, including views on gun control, abortion and religion,” the filing says. “Another tool contained policies that allowed for both the collection of bulk user information and the triggering of content removal on the platform based on the user's use of certain words.”
TikTok reiterated its view that the lawsuit is “unconstitutional” and that the DOJ has yet to provide “proof of its claims,” according to its statement to X.
“Nothing in this brief changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side,” TikTok said in a statement to X in response to the court filings. “Banning TikTok would silence 170 million American voices, violating the First Amendment.”
“As we've said before, the government has never produced evidence for its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law,” TikTok said in the statement. “Today, once again, the government takes this unprecedented step while hiding behind classified information. We remain confident that we will prevail in court.”
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Sept. 16, according to recent court filings.
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