Future downloads of TikTok are banned on US Govt held devices.
India previously outlawed the Chinese social media site due to security reasons. Now, US officials have done something similar. The new rule follows a series of actions by U.S. state governments to ban TikTok, as this app is being considered as vulnerable due to a number of emerging security issues, the House’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) said. He said in a message sent to all lawmakers and staff on Tuesday, TikTok app must be deleted from all devices managed by the House.
Politicians who are concerned about TikTok’s parent firm, which is situated in China, have long brought up that last issue in conversation. It has now resulted in long-awaited government crackdowns. As per news, 19 states had partially blocked the app from state-managed devices over concerns that the Chinese government could use the app to track sensitive content or gov records.
The US administration is concerned that Chinese government may utilize TikTok to monitor content and track American’s data. The US is worried that the Chinese software could be used to “spy on Americans,” much like India is. Several US states have previously outlawed the app due to concerns that TikTok may be used to control and manipulate users. Once US President Joe Biden signs the package into law, the 1.66 trillion omnibus spending plan will go into force. In fact, the US Congress has introduced a bill that would prohibit TikTok across the country.
The administration of Donald Trump previously tried to prohibit future TikTok downloads. With the proviso that sensitive information about US citizens might be hacked by Communist Party of China, a US government committee on foreign investment ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok in 2020.
Declaring that US user data is not maintained in China and that information is not shared with the Chinese government, TikTok has long claimed that the way in which it handles user data should not be cause for worry. Following the passage of the spending measure by Congress last week, the company guaranteed to “meaningfully address any security issues that have been expressed at both the federal and state level.”
A data security deal between TikTok and the US government has been discussed for months, but so far no such agreement has been achieved. Noteworthy fact is that, TikTok reportedly has over 100 million US user base.
