US to prohibit the use of the TikTok App on Government Devices
US steps to limit the usage of TikTok – the video short application that is accused of posing a security threat and source of misinformation have been going on this week.
On Tuesday morning, lawmakers included a plan to prohibit government employees from using this Chinese app on devices used by the government in a major spending bill.
The Senate passed last week the bill authored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley to bar federal employees from accessing the app, operated by ByteDance and accessible on devices used by government agencies as part of the latest clampdown on Chinese businesses.
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The ban was part of an enormous omnibus measure that aims to help fund US government activities which is scheduled to be approved this week.
The US Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to pass legislation, first introduced by Sen. @HawleyMO, that would ban the use of #TikTok on gov't devices amid growing concerns that the app poses a #Cybersecurity risk and is a threat to US #NationalSecurity. https://t.co/xycCsxhTYL
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) December 15, 2022
The bill allows an agency called the White House Office of Management and Budget 60 days “to create guidelines and standards for executive agencies that demand the elimination” from TikTok off federal gadgets.
The plan last week gained the support by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
19 States also block access to the Internet.
TikTok has acknowledged that the issues stem from false information. The legislation will not affect greater than 100 million Americans who use TikTok for business or personal devices.
A number of federal agencies, including those of the White House and the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments, have already banned TikTok from devices belonging to the government.
On Monday, government agencies across Louisiana along with West Virginia became the latest to prohibit access to TikTok on devices used by government agencies due to the fear that China could utilize it to monitor Americans and block content.
A total of 19 , if not all, of the fifty US states have at a minimum blocked access on computers of government agencies to TikTok. The majority of these restrictions occurred in the last two weeks.
Then in 2020 Republican president Donald Trump tried to prevent any new customers from installing TikTok and also to block certain transactions that would effectively block TikTok’s usage across the United States but lost a string of legal disputes.
The US government Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which is a security agency for the nation has been trying for months to negotiate a national security agreement to secure the information from US TikTok users, however it seems unlikely that a deal will be reached by the year’s end.