TikTok Collected U.S. Users’ Views on Gun Control, Abortion and Religion, Department of Justice Says

TikTok collected data about its users’ views on sensitive topics and censored content at the direction of its China-based parent company, the Justice Department said, making its most forceful case to date that the video-sharing app poses a national-security threat. The sensitive topics TikTok tracked included the views of its US-based users on gun control, abortion and religion, the Justice Department said. The Justice Department made the details public in court filings in response to a federal lawsuit TikTok filed in May 2024 arguing that a new law requiring a sale or ban of the popular social-media app violates the free-speech rights of millions of Americans under the banner of national security. The measure bans Chinese-backed TikTok in the US unless its parent company, ByteDance, divests itself of the platform by mid-January. The Justice Department said it based its conclusions about TikTok tracking sensitive views on the discovery of a software tool that lets U.S. employees of TikTok and ByteDance, also based in China, collect user information based on a user’s content, including their views on subjects such as gun control, abortion and religion.