The White House on Monday (local time) gave federal agencies 30 days to purge the Chinese-owned app TikTok from all government-issued devices.
The directive comes after congressional legislation passed in December banned the popular video-sharing app from federal government devices and systems, amid concerns TikTok’s parent company ByteDance could allow the Chinese Communist Party access to user data, reported New York Post (NYP). Meanwhile, ByteDance-owned TikTok has said the concerns are fueled by misinformation and has denied using the app to spy on Americans. ByteDance denied that it would share user data with the CCP, calling the concerns “misinformation,” reported NYP.
Several government agencies, including the White House, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department, had preemptively banned TikTok from government devices before Congress’s December vote.
The memo clarifies that the TikTok ban does not apply if there are approved national security, law enforcement or security research activities being conducted on government devices.
The memo adds that within 90 days, agencies must address any use of the app by IT vendors through contracts and within 120 days agencies will include a new prohibition on TikTok in all new solicitations, reported NYP.
