Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: The White House has given government agencies a 30-day deadline to remove the Chinese app TikTok from all federal devices and systems.
“To protect US data, all federal agencies must remove TikTok from phones and systems and prohibit internet traffic from reaching the company,” according to a guidance memorandum obtained by Reuters from Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young.
The ban, imposed by Congress late last year, follows similar measures taken by Canada, the Europeon Union, Taiwan, and more than half of US states, order a ban on its use.
While the device ban affects only a small portion of TikTok’s US user base, it adds fuel to calls for the video-sharing app to be banned entirely. Concerns about China’s spying have recently grown after a Chinese balloon flew over the United States.
TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, said that the concerns were fueled by misinformation and refuted the app was being used to spy on Americans. The US Congress’ action has no impact on the over 100 million Americans who use TikTok on private or work-owned devices.
In December, Congress voted to prohibit federal employees from using TikTok. The vote was the latest step taken by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese firms amid national security concerns that China could use them to spy on Americans.
Chris DeRusha, the federal government’s chief information security officer, said that the guidance was part of the Biden administration’s ongoing commitment to securing country’s digital infrastructure and safeguarding the privacy of the American people.
Many government entities, including the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defence, and the State Department, had banned TikTok from government devices prior to the Congress vote.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee will vote on a draft bill on Tuesday that would give President Joe Biden the powers to remove TikTok from all US devices.
The committee chair, Representative Mike McCaul, said, “my bill empowers the government to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten US national security. He claimed that anyone who has TikTok installed on their device has granted the (Chinese Communist Party) access to all of their personal information. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the Congress ban on TikTok.
White House memo
According to the White House memo, all agencies must discuss any use of TikTok by IT vendors through contracts within 90 days, and within 120 days, agencies must include a new restriction on TikTok in all new solicitations.
Earlier on Monday, Canada put a halt on TikTok from government-issued devices, citing a “unacceptable” level of risk to security and privacy, further dividing the two countries.
The Canadian ban was imposed “without citing any specific security risk or trying to contact us with questions,” according to a TikTok spokesman. For security reasons, TikTok was deleted from the phones of the European Union’s two most powerful policymaking organisations last week.
