The U.S. intelligence community determined TikTok censored speech on behalf of the Chinese government, according to a Justice Department court filing.
The rare glimpse into what American spies know about how China’s government uses TikTok came in a legal brief filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday.
National security officials often warn of dangers from the China-founded app that could materialize, but a declaration from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Casey Blackburn details problems that have already occurred.
“Intelligence reporting further demonstrates that ByteDance and TikTok Global have taken action in response to [Chinese government] demands to censor content outside of China,” the legal brief said citing Mr. Blackburn.
The revelation is sandwiched between heavy redactions, making it unclear precisely who TikTok allegedly censored and what information the Chinese government wanted hidden.
The Justice Department’s brief comes as part of an ongoing effort by the U.S. government to force TikTok to separate itself from its China-founded owner ByteDance. The battle reached new heights earlier this year after Congress passed new law aiming to force ByteDance to sell TikTok.
In response to the Justice Department’s filing, TikTok said the U.S. Constitution is on its side and it is confident it will prevail in court.
“The government has never put forth proof of its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law,” said TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek in a statement on Sunday. “Today, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information.”
Details of the intelligence community’s findings are redacted from public view. The U.S. government relied on classified and unclassified information it collected to evaluate the threat posed by TikTok, according to the brief citing Mr. Blackburn’s declaration.
The Justice Department’s filing said the national security harms from China’s authority over TikTok’s owners include such things as enabling the blackmail and coercion of Americans and the identification of covert American intelligence officers and assets. U.S. officials also have concerns that China could use ByteDance to recruit and develop intelligence assets.
“The threat that ByteDance or TikTok could easily manipulate the algorithm to promote or suppress certain content is not an abstract one,” the Justice Department’s filing said. “TikTok and ByteDance ‘employees regularly engage’ in a practice called ‘heating,’ in which certain videos are manually promoted to ’achieve a certain number of video views’.”
The legal brief said TikTok does not disclose what posts get “heated” but public reporting determined China-based employees abused their heating privileges which led to one account getting more than 3 million views.
The U.S. government’s legal dispute with TikTok represents a clear test of the constitutionality of the government’s efforts to crack down on the popular app amid concerns about Chinese espionage.
Alongside the constitutional debate, the case will provide answers to questions about the American intelligence community’s ability to help provide U.S. economic security.
Mr. Blackburn, a veteran analyst of the CIA, leads the Office of Economic Security and Emerging Technology within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Mr. Blackburn said at an AI expo in May that the intelligence community was “very short” on business acumen needed to analyze national security.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.