Against the looming sell-off bill of TikTok in the U.S., many questions remain in mind regarding exactly what is the case against the app and what has eluded many to vote overwhelmingly in favor of forcing it into American ownership or simply banning it completely from the region.

For instance, while people have been theoretically speculating about how TikTok might share US user data with its Chinese parent company and seed pro-China stories - and repress anti-China narratives-tiktok itself says all of that is simply not true up to this point, and seemingly no evidence has surfaced that misuse of such has indeed occurred either.

Or has it?

In public filings on the TikTok sell-off bill late last week, the U.S. Justice Department alleged that TikTok has tracked many of its U.S. users' views on sensitive issues and shared that information with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which is required to pass it along to the Chinese government upon request.

As The Wall Street Journal reports:

"The Justice Department said it drew its conclusions about TikTok tracking sensitive views on discovering a software tool that enables TikTok and ByteDance employees in the U.S. to collect user information based on a user's content, including views on subjects such as gun control, abortion and religion."

That program, Lark, allows ByteDance employees to monitor responses to a variety of subjects and potentially flag accounts based on people's views and behaviors.

Several former TikTok and ByteDance employees said they confirmed the existence of the Lark system, which in turn requires the importation of user data into China for processing. Among other topics, monitored by TikTok employees, were users who watched gay content.

The Justice Department asserts that it has evidence that TikTok has employed such knowledge to display propaganda to users within the app directed by the Chinese Government, while also censoring certain types of content as demanded by the CCP.

Which, as explained above, was also something speculated upon for a long time. Already in 2019, there were reports by The Guardian about TikTok's internal moderation guidelines where, among other things, it was reported that TikTok employees had been instructed to block videos that featured the Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence or the Falun Gong. TikTok denied these allegations and also argued that some of these guidelines are never enforced outside of China and never transferred to TikTok itself, because TikTok is not even available in China.

But surely, the question still is, and TikTok, by appearances, has both the capability and inclination to use those insights to shape opinion among users, should it wish to do so.
And when you sum the overhang of the Chinese government from the local version of the app, named Douyin, along with the ongoing efforts that Chinese state-funded groups are undertaking to sway Western user opinions in virtually every other social app, it does seem logical to assume that TikTok would present a perfect vector for the same.

Hence, based on these findings, the threat that TikTok poses is not about tracking general user data in the app and learning what you, individually, are interested in but about understanding the political sensitivities of certain user groups and seeding narratives that would favor the CCP.

Thus, while many users of TikTok have spoken out in opposition to the U.S. government's plan to mandatorily insist that the app sell itself, there is obviously sound logic, based on internal findings, behind the case being cited by the Justice Department.

Is TikTok being manipulated in ways to shape opinions in accordance with the CCP's line? Almost impossible to know, since the personalization of TikTok's algorithm ensures each user experiences something different. So you mightn't feel you're being swayed and that you couldn't possibly be swayed by such. It is, however likely not as obvious as you think and it may well be that you are also not a target for such.

Or, so TikTok would have it, it is nothing.

That is what the court will now have to decide as TikTok challenges the ruling, in a hope of remaining active in the U.S.