DOJ claims TikTok collected US user views on issues like abortion and gun control

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

July 27, 2024, 1:24 AM


WASHINGTON -- In a fresh broadside against one of the world’s most popular technology companies, the Justice Department late Friday accused 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 wrote 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 U.S. users, information that has wound up being stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees in China, federal officials said.

One of Lark’s internal search tools, the filing states, permits ByteDance and TikTok employees in the U.S. 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 President Joe Biden in April, the company could face a ban in a few months if it doesn't break ties with ByteDance.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/justice-dept-claims-tiktok-collected-us-user-views-112325263

[Martin68]

1. We were warned. This kind of data is a powerful tool to influence elections. China is not playing around, and every

Chinese company is required by law to give the Chinese government data they request.

[PortTack]

2. And you think meta doesn't do this? Doesn't sell our info?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Yup. They all do it

even Google admitted to Chrome's "Incognito Mode" basically being bullshit - https://www.wired.com/story/chrome-incognito-mode-privacy-warning/

[Martin68]

6. Meta doesn't have a professed agenda to destroy the US. China does. I don't like what Meta does either, but Meta is not

existential threat to the US and many of our Asian allies.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. We need a federal law that makes it clear that our data is ours to control

See, e.g.,
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/157/personal-data-protection

[Hekate]

8. The only way to ensure that is to stop using electronic equipment/chips made outside the US

Money has no nationality and no loyalty — thus capitalism itself must be regulated in the interests of national defense, if nothing else

[MontanaMama]

5. Meta does it too.

Maybe even worse. Nobody in congress seems to care about that however.

[FakeNoose]

7. I'm convinced the only solution is to change identities every few years

Wipe out your old emails, delete your user names, change email addresses. Get a new phone and delete the old numbers, names and accounts and start fresh on the new phone.

Is that a pain in the ass? You betcha. But this invasion of our privacy is the result of our sitting back and letting it all happen. Posting political views on TikTok or Facebook is really dumb, unless you plan to wipe it all out with a completely different identity later on.

[Hekate]

9. Same with DU--this isn't a SCIF, right? We used to periodically remind ourselves of that

…by referring to “Agent Mike” (who imho has retired and been replaced by Agent Fred)

That’s not to say we’re hugely important here — but bulk data is