US justice department says TikTok poses threat to national security

The US Justice Department said TikTok collected user information on sensitive topics, making it a national security threat that justifies a law to ban the popular social-media app in the US if its China-based parent company ByteDance Ltd. doesn't divest.


The popular social media app could be compelled to share the user information with China, which could also censor or influence content seen by Americans, the Justice Department said in court filings late Friday.



The filing in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit was the Justice Department's first response to legal challenges brought by TikTok and the company's content creators after President Joseph Biden signed a provision into law that would ban the app if ByteDance doesn't sell it by Jan. 19.