From the Liveblog of
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Washington claims TikTok collected US user views on divisive issues like abortion, gun control
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a fresh broadside against one of the world’s most popular technology companies, the US Justice Department accuses TikTok of harnessing the capability to gather bulk information on users based on views on divisive social issues like gun control, abortion and religion.
Government lawyers write in a brief filed to the federal appeals court in Washington that TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance used an internal web-suite system called Lark to enable TikTok employees to speak directly with ByteDance engineers in China.
TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive data about US users, information that has wound up being stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees in China, according to federal officials.
One of Lark’s internal search tools, the filing states, permits ByteDance and TikTok employees in the US and China to gather information on users’ content or expressions, including views on sensitive topics, such as abortion or religion.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported TikTok had tracked users who watched LGBTQ content through a dashboard the company said it had since deleted.
The new court documents represent the government’s first major defense in a consequential legal battle over the future of the popular social media platform, which is used by more than 170 million Americans. Under a law signed by US President Joe Biden in April, the company could face a ban in a few months if it doesn’t break ties with ByteDance.
The Justice Department warns, in stark terms, of the potential for what it called “covert content manipulation” by the Chinese government, saying the algorithm could be designed to shape content that users receive.
The concern, they said, is more than theoretical, alleging that TikTok and ByteDance employees are known to engage in a practice called “heating” in which certain videos are promoted in order to receive a certain number of views.
While this capability enables TikTok to curate popular content and disseminate it more widely, US officials posit it can also be used for nefarious purposes.
