US House bans TikTok from official devices | CNN Business
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Washington
CNN
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TikTok has been banned from electronic devices managed by the US House of Representatives, according to an internal notice sent to House staff.
Users who install the short-form video app on any House mobile device will be prompted to remove the software, according to the notice, which the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer provided to CNN.
The warning identifies TikTok as a “high risk to users due to a number of security risks.”
Separately, the US government is expected to soon ban TikTok from all federal devices as part of legislation included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature. The move comes after more than a dozen states in recent weeks have implemented their own bans against TikTok on government devices.
TikTok has previously called efforts to ban the app from government devices “a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests.” TikTok declined to comment on the House restrictions.
U.S. policymakers have cited TikTok as a potential national security risk, saying the Chinese government could pressure TikTok or its parent company, ByteDance, to hand over the personal information of its U.S. users, which then could use for Chinese intelligence operations or for dissemination. of China-backed disinformation.
There is no evidence that this actually happened, although the company confirmed last week that it fired four employees who improperly accessed the TikTok user data of two journalists on the platform.
Since 2020, TikTok has been negotiating with the US government for a possible deal to resolve national security concerns and allow the app to be available to US users. TikTok has said the potential settlement under review covers “key concerns about corporate governance, content recommendation and moderation, and data security and access.” The company has also taken steps to cut off US user data, organizationally and technologically, from other parts of TikTok’s business.
But an apparent lack of progress in the talks has led some of TikTok’s critics, including in Congress and at the state level, to push for the app to be banned from government devices and potentially more broadly.
