DOJ

The U.S. Department of Justice accused TikTok of gathering and sharing U.S. user data on contentious issues like abortion and gun control with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Court documents reveal that TikTok used an internal system called Lark to communicate and transfer sensitive data to ByteDance employees in China. The DOJ argues that TikTok’s data handling practices pose significant national security risks and could allow for covert content manipulation by the Chinese government. TikTok disputes these claims, asserting that the potential ban would violate the First Amendment. This case is part of a broader legal battle over TikTok’s future in the U.S.