TikTok Said to Be Banned From US House of Representatives-Managed Devices

The fashionable Chinese video app TikTok has been banned from all US House of Representatives-managed units, based on the House’s administration arm, mimicking a regulation quickly to enter impact banning the app from US authorities units.

The app is taken into account “high risk due to a number of security issues,” the House’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) stated in a message despatched to all lawmakers and workers on Tuesday, and have to be deleted from all units managed by the House.

The new rule follows a collection of strikes by US state governments to ban TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, from authorities units. As of final week, 19 states have not less than partially blocked the app from state-managed units over considerations that the Chinese authorities may use the app to trace Americans and censor content material.

The $1.66 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,37,50,100 crore) omnibus spending invoice, handed final week to fund the US authorities via to September 30, 2023, features a provision to ban the app on federally managed units, and can take impact as soon as President Joe Biden indicators the laws into regulation.

“With the passage of the Omnibus that banned TikTok on executive branch devices, the CAO worked with the Committee on House Administration to implement a similar policy for the House,” a spokesperson for the Chief Administrative Officer informed Reuters on Tuesday.

The message to workers stated anybody with TikTok on their system can be contacted about eradicating it, and future downloads of the app have been prohibited.

TikTok didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark in regards to the new rule.

US lawmakers have put ahead a proposal to implement a nationwide ban on the app.

© Thomson Reuters 2022