TikTok no longer banned on government phones despite security concerns

The White House (link downloads a PDF to your device) informed federal employees that they can now install the social video platform TikTok on their work devices, ending a ban passed by Congress in 2022. ByteDance sold TikTok to a U.S.-based joint venture in January to comply with a 2024 law that required foreign entities controlled by adversaries to undergo a “qualified divestiture” in order to operate in the United States. The Office of Budget and Management cites Justice Department guidance (PDF download) from July, noting that TikTok’s divestment means the 2022 law no longer applies.

Politico reports that several agencies, including the Treasury Department, have opened accounts on the platform since the July guidance, while congressional staff are still banned, with the House of Representatives and Senate having adopted their own rules. DOJ guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel also allows individual federal agencies to maintain bans at their own discretion, such as to promote staff productivity.

Efforts to ban the network in the United States date back to Donald Trump’s first presidency. In 2020, he signed an executive order banning TikTok over concerns about Chinese digital surveillance and censorship of user-submitted videos covering issues such as Uyghur detentions in Xinjiang and democracy protests in Hong Kong – a federal judge overturned that ban later that year. Concerns have remained high during President Joe Biden’s term. In June 2022, BuzzFeed News reported that ByteDance employees accessed non-public information of American users to respond to inquiries from the Chinese Communist Party. Several ByteDance representatives have denied these claims.

Congress passed the No TikTok Government Devices Act in December of that year, which Biden signed. In 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress, trying to assure lawmakers that his company was behaving appropriately and taking steps to protect its users. When asked if ByteDance was spying on Americans, Chew responded with a jaw-dropping comment: “I don’t think spying is the right way to describe it.”