Toni Dimaano Tech 12.30.2022 01:Dec AM EST

US Government Bans TikTok On Most Federal Government-Owned Devices

After Congress passed a $1.7 trillion budget plan, TikTok will be prohibited on practically all smartphones provided by the federal government.

The massive 4,155-page omnibus package was filled with legislation, including the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, which the Senate unanimously adopted last week.

TikTok Is Prohibited On Government Devices From February

Since the funding plan will support the government through September, it was expedited in order to prevent a partial government shutdown.

The bill was approved by the House on Friday by a vote of 225-201, while the Senate passed it on December 22 by a vote of 68-29.

In order to prevent a government shutdown, President Joe Biden signed a stopgap bill that financed the government for an additional week on the same day.

The law mandates that by the middle of February, the Biden administration must draft guidelines for removing TikTok from federal equipment, Engadget writes.

For elected officials, legislative employees, law enforcement personnel, and other officials, the bill made exclusions.

Despite the fact that TikTok will no longer be accessible on most federal government devices thanks to the new law, the app is still not totally banned on all American devices.

The federal government has adopted a similar prohibition on the software on devices provided by state governments, joining a number of other states that have previously done so.

According to BGR, TikTok has already been forbidden in more than a dozen states, and other local governments are following suit.

The news from today comes the same week as similar restrictions were enacted by the US House of Representatives and the state of Kansas.

The Ban Comes Around Due To Rising Security Concerns

FBI Director Chris Wray issued a warning about China's potential use of the app to gather user data earlier this month.

Despite this, TikTok has made an effort to reassure US senators' worries that the application might be used for surveillance.

All traffic coming from the nation has been routed through domestic Oracle servers since June, and TikTok claimed to have deleted US customer data from their own servers in the US and Singapore.

However, news of the termination of four employees by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, who had accessed the TikTok data of US journalists, surfaced while Congress was voting on the legislation.

As per reports, the social media platform's employees were allegedly trying to find the sources of the journalist's leak through their accounts, Engadget reports.

It is important to note that the omnibus package also includes other tech-related provisions, such as increased money for federal antitrust officials, in addition to moderating TikTok.

The bill also includes the Computers for Veterans and Students Act, which mandates that the government give certain surplus computers to charitable organizations.

Through this law, the systems will be fixed and/or upgraded before being given away to educational institutions, homeschooled children, veterans, older citizens, and other groups in need.