U.S. intelligence community discovered TikTok censored for China, says Justice Department filing

The U.S. intelligence community determined that TikTok censored speech on behalf of the Chinese government, according to a Justice Department court filing.

A legal brief filed on Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia provided a rare glimpse into what American spies know about how the Chinese government uses TikTok.

National security officials often warn of potential dangers from the China-founded app, but a declaration from Casey Blackburn in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence details problems that have already emerged.

“Intelligence reporting further demonstrates that ByteDance and TikTok Global have taken action in response to [Chinese government] demands to censor content outside of China,” said the legal brief, citing Mr. Blackburn.

The revelation is sandwiched between heavy redactions, making it unclear precisely whom TikTok allegedly censored and what information the Chinese government wanted hidden.

The Justice Department’s brief is part of a U.S. government effort to force TikTok to separate from its China-founded owner, ByteDance. The battle reached new heights earlier this year after Congress enacted a 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,” TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek said in a statement 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 enabling the blackmail and coercion of Americans and the identification of covert U.S. 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 are “heated,” but public reporting determined that 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 because of 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 artificial intelligence expo in May that the intelligence community was “very short” on business acumen needed to analyze national security.