Justice Department says TikTok has collected user data on issues such as gun control and abortion

The Justice Department on Friday evening accused the social media app TikTok of gathering information on users' opinions on social issues such as abortion and gun control. 

Attorneys for the DOJ said in documents filed at an appeals court in Washington that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance used an internal web-suite system called Lark to get TikTok employees to communicate with ByteDance engineers in China. 

The lawyers allege that through Lark, employees were able to use the tools to gather sensitive information about social issues and religion, according to The Associated Press.

That information has wound up being stored on Chinese servers and has shown to be accessible to ByteDance employees in China.

The DOJ warned that this could be used by the Chinese government for something called “covert content manipulation."

“By directing ByteDance or TikTok to covertly manipulate that algorithm, China could for example further its existing malign influence operations and amplify its efforts to undermine trust in our democracy and exacerbate social divisions,” the brief states, according to The AP.

There have been bipartisan conversations among U.S. lawmakers about banning TikTok due to national security concerns. 

A TikTok spokesperson has pushed back against the idea of the app being banned, stating it would violate the First Amendment.