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The U.S. Department of Justice has claimed that TikTok<\/a> and its parent company, ByteDance, have gathered \u201cbulk\u201d data on users\u2019 views on gun control, abortion, and religion, and sent it to China. The information was reportedly collected through an internal communication tool called Lark.<\/p>\n In a filing<\/a> from July 26, the Justice Department reported that since 2022, Lark had contained multiple internal search tools developed and operated by ByteDance engineers for scraping TikTok user data, including U.S. user data.<\/p>\n Lark is similar to internal messaging services such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. However, according to Techspot<\/a>, it also gathers user data such as photos, country of residence, IP address and device, as well as user IDs.<\/p>\n The document stated that one of those tools \u201callowed ByteDance and TikTok employees in the United States<\/a> and China to collect bulk user information based on the user\u2019s content or expressions, including views on gun control, abortion, and religion.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department also suggests that \u201csignificant amounts of restricted U.S. user data (including but not limited to personally identifiable information)\u201d were shared over Lark.<\/p>\n \u201cThis resulted in certain sensitive U.S. person data being contained in Lark channels and, therefore, stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees located in China,\u201d the DoJ added.<\/p>\n Another tool allegedly included policies that allowed the suppression of content on the platform based on the user\u2019s use of certain words. Although some of these policies applied only to users based in China, others may have been used to target TikTok users outside of China.<\/p>\n The filing also targets the American multinational tech firm Oracle over its attempted partnership with ByteDance under a \u201cnational security agreement\u201d (NSA) that would ideally have TikTok operating under strict conditions.<\/p>\n The software company began reviewing TikTok\u2019s source code in 2022, which contained two billion lines of code. That being said, it was estimated that reviewing it in its entirety would take three years, hence the proposal was rejected.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the source code is not static,\u201d the document notes. \u201cByteDance regularly updates it to add and modify TikTok\u2019s features. Even with Oracle\u2019s considerable resources, perfect review would be an impossibility.\u201d<\/p>\n The DoJ argued that tech providers would \u201clack insight into ByteDance\u2019s communications with PRC officials, ByteDance\u2019s use of US user data, and ByteDance\u2019s other TikTok-related activities,\u201d hence deeming the partnership \u201ctoo great a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Our statement on the DOJ brief filed today:<\/p>\n “Nothing in this brief changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side. The TikTok ban would silence 170 million Americans’ voices, violating the First Amendment. As we’ve said before, the government has never put forth proof of\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) July 27, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n TikTok rejected the claims in a post on X, stating: \u201cToday, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information. We remain confident we will prevail in court.\u201d\u00a0ByteDance has filed a countersuit seeking to block the law that forces the video-sharing app to separate from the company by January 19 or face a ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is expected to hold oral arguments on the legal challenge on September 16.<\/p>\n Featured image: Ideogram<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nOracle\u2019s scrutiny of TikTok user data<\/h2>\n
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