The DOJ argued in its filing that TikTok under Chinese ownership poses a serious national security threat because of its access to vast personal data of Americans, asserting China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume via TikTok.

"The serious national-security threat posed by TikTok is real," the department said. "TikTok provides the Chinese government the means to undermine US national security in two principal ways, data collection and covert content manipulation."

The Biden administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reject lawsuits by TikTok, parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators seeking to block the law that could ban the app used by 170 million Americans.

--Reuters--