The doj enters its defense of the tiktok ban or divest law – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Richard Lawler
The DOJ enters its defense of the TikTok ban-or-divest law.

A month after TikTok made its First Amendment case against a potential ban, lawyers for the government responded Friday. The partially redacted filings (available in full here) include their arguments that the Chinese government could use data collected by the app or manipulate its algorithm to influence US elections.

One example pointed to search tools for the company’s internal Lark messaging tool, shown below.

At least as of 2022, Lark contained multiple internal search tools that had been developed and run by China-based ByteDance engineers for scraping TikTok user data, including U.S. user data. f. (U) One of those tools allowed ByteDance and TikTok employees in the United States and China to collect bulk user information based on the user’s content or expressions, including views on gun control, abortion, and religion. 
Screenshot: Document #01208647195, TikTok v. Merrick Garland
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