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China tech

TikTok harvested and sent data to China, lawsuit claims

App also cited for taking down a video about Uighurs in Xinjiang

TikTok locked Feroza Aziz out of her account after the New Jersey teenager discussed Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang in a video masqueraded as a makeup tutorial. (Nikkei collage)

NEW YORK -- American users of the short-video app TikTok are coming forward with allegations of data and censorship misconduct, despite the Chinese social-media platform's recent efforts to refute such claims as it faces national-security probes in Washington.

A newly surfaced consumer class action, filed last Wednesday in California, accuses TikTok, which is owned and operated by Beijing-based ByteDance, of harvesting user data without notice or consent and sending that data to China.

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