The House Executive Officer (CAO) reportedly told all lawmakers and staff in an email that they should delete the app from their devices as it is considered “high risk due to a number of security issues.” Anyone who is found to have a social networking application on their phone will be contacted to ensure that the application is deleted and its downloading will be prohibited in the future.
This is the latest in several moves by the US government to block the app from its owned devices. Last week, lawmakers passed a $1.7 trillion multi-purpose spending bill that includes provisions that would ban TikTok’s use on executive branch devices. A spokesperson for the Chief Administrative Officer told Reuters that following the transition, the CAO is working with the House Administration Committee to implement a similar policy for the House.
The move comes just after the Senate unanimously passed the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” introduced by Senator Josh Hawley. As Reuters noted, 19 states have also banned installing and using the app on staff devices, both owned and managed. When the law was passed, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told Engadget that the company was “disappointed that Congress took action to ban TikTok on government devices”, calling it a “political gesture that won’t work towards furthering national security interests”.
The first ban for TikTok has arrived! Schools may be next!
US government officials criticizing TikTok have expressed concern that the app could be used by Chinese officials as a tool to spy on the US. FBI Director Chris Wray called it “a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party” and said the app had no place in government devices until it cut ties with China completely. TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, tried to address these concerns, but apparently without success, by routing all local traffic through Oracle servers in the US and promising to delete all US user data from its servers.
That said, the recent announcement that ByteDance laid off four of its employees for improperly obtaining data from TikTok users in the US, including two reporters, probably didn’t help the company’s cause much. Employees gained access to IP addresses and other data linked to two reporters in their quest to find out who leaked inside information to the press, according to a New York Times report.