TikTok ban on US House-managed phones is implemented ahead of anticipated federal restriction

The United States federal government is expected to ban TikTok on official devices soon. But before that becomes an official policy, the administration arm of the House of Representatives has already implemented a similar rule for all House members and their staff.

Reuters reports that the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) reached out to lawmakers and their staff members on Tuesday about the ban. They had been asked to delete TikTok from devices managed by the lower house of the U.S Congress, noting that the app is of “high risk” concern.

CAO confirmed the move, telling the publication, “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.”

The said memo was shared by NBC News, which stated that anyone using a U.S. House-issued device with TikTok installed would be contacted. The policy also prohibits them from installing the app in the future.

The said Omnibus refers to the $1.66 trillion funding bill that Congress passed last week. It contains a section that prohibits the use of TikTok on all devices managed by the U.S. federal government. The provision also covers “any successor application or service” to be released by the China-based developer ByteDance, owner and creator of TikTok. President Joe Biden has confirmed he will sign the bipartisan Omnibus into law “as soon as it reaches [his] desk.”

Before the bill was passed, ByteDance confirmed an internal investigation revealed its employees used TikTok to track the physical location of several journalists from Forbes, BuzzFeed News, and the Financial Times through their IP addresses collected by the app. The surveillance activity was reportedly conducted in an attempt to identify the journalists’ sources.

A BuzzFeed report published last June claimed, citing leaked audio from internal meetings, that China-based employees have gained access to U.S. user data on multiple occasions.

TikTok somewhat confirmed the report in response to U.S. senators’ inquiry obtained by the New York Times. The social media giant told the lawmakers, “Employees outside the U.S., including China- based employees, can have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team.”

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