TikTok says court should reject DOJ secret filings in divestiture suit

(Adds no immediate DOJ comment, more details from filing, background in paragraphs 3-10)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - TikTok and parent company ByteDance asked a U.S. appeals court on Monday to reject the Justice Department's bid to file part of its legal case in secret that defends a law seeking to force the divestiture of TikTok's U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or impose a ban.

The Justice Department wants court approval "to file more than 15% of its brief and 30% of its evidence in secret," Chinese parent company ByteDance and TikTok said. If they "are unable to review the government’s evidence," they said, "they will be unable to rebut contentions that are factually incorrect -- let alone explain to the court why the government’s arguments and evidence are legally insufficient."

TikTok said if the court does not agree to reject the evidence it should appoint a district court judge as a special master "to assess the contents of the classified submissions and the government’s asserted need for secrecy."

The Justice Department, which did not immediately comment, last month asked the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia to uphold the law passed in April.

The department also filed a classified document with the court detailing additional security concerns about ByteDance's ownership of TikTok, as well as broader declarations from the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and DOJ's National Security Division but TikTok wants the court to reject the secret filing.

The DOJ argued 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 Biden administration asked the court to reject lawsuits by TikTok, ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators seeking to block the law that could ban the app used by 170 million Americans.

TikTok has repeatedly denied it would ever share U.S. user data with China or that it manipulates video results.

The DOJ's filing details wide-ranging national security concerns about ByteDance's ownership of TikTok.

The government acknowledged it had no information that the Chinese government had gained access to the data of U.S. TikTok users but said the risk of the possibility was too great. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita Choy)