TikTok has reportedly been collecting information about US Users’ views on everything from abortion to gun control to share with the app’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, The Wall Street Journal reports.The Justice Department made details of the information collection public in court filings Friday. The filings were made in conjunction with a federal lawsuit against the company in May. That lawsuit argued that a law forcing TikTok to be sold or banned in the United States violated the free-speech rights of Americans; however, the news that the app is sharing information with China adds fuel to the argument that it poses a risk to national security.“The collection of data from Americans is not a protected activity,” a Justice Department representative said, explaining the findings.The Justice Department has also noted that TikTok has a history of censoring content at the direction of ByteDance, making it a “conduit for content-moderation decisions made by the Chinese entities.”The Justice Department has also claimed that TikTok employees in the United States have sent restricted user data on US users to colleagues in China using the company’s internal communications system, sometimes including users’ birth dates, email addresses, and even IP addresses.
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The US government plans to ban TikTok in January if its parent company does not sell it to a US-based company. The company filed an appeal to the decision.
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