- Kyle Chua
US House Bans TikTok on All Official Devices
The U.S. is one step closer to banning TikTok in the entire country.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives' administrative arm announced the popular short-video app would be banned on all official devices, as Reuters reports. The House's Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) said in a message to all lawmakers and staff that the app is considered "high risk due to a number of security issues" and should be deleted immediately.
The message also said that anyone with TikTok on their device would be contacted about deleting it, with future downloads being prohibited.
The new rule comes after a number of efforts by U.S. state governments to ban TikTok on all government devices. As of last week, 19 states have reportedly at least partially blocked the app from official devices. The U.S. government considers TikTok a threat to national security due to it allegedly being used by the Chinese government to spy on American officials and control the content they see. TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance.
Last week, the House passed the US$1.66 trillion omnibus spending bill to fund the U.S. government through 30 September, 2023. The bill includes a provision to ban the app on devices managed by the federal government, which would be enforced once President Biden signs the legislation into law.
"With the passage of the Omnibus that banned TikTok on executive branch devices, the CAO worked with the Committee on House Administration to implement a similar policy for the House," a spokesperson for the Chief Administrative Officer told Reuters.
While TikTok has yet to comment about the new rule, it has previously said that the bans are politically motivated and don't advance the country's national security in any way. It has maintained that it takes users' privacy very seriously and would continue to work with lawmakers over such concerns.
A new bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate and House earlier this month that could move to block access to TikTok or any other apps that send user data to oppressive governments.
The U.S. House of Representatives' administrative arm announced TikTok would be banned on all official devices.
The House's Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) said in a message to all lawmakers and staff that the app is considered "high risk due to a number of security issues" and should be deleted immediately.
The recently passed omnibus bill also includes a provision to ban the app on devices managed by the federal government, which would be enforced once President Biden signs the legislation into law.