The White House on Monday ordered the removal of the Chinese-owned TikTok app from all government devices and systems within 30 days in a bid to keep U.S. data safe.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said on Twitter that the Biden administration “has made advancing our nation’s cybersecurity a top priority.”
“Today, OMB is releasing guidance on implementation of the ‘No TikTok on Government Devices Act,’ requiring agencies to cease using the app except in select circumstances,” the agency wrote.
OMB Director Shalanda Young issued the guidance to all federal agencies requiring them to prohibit internet traffic from reaching the Chinese-owned company as part of the purge.
An OMB memo states that agencies must address any use of TikTok by IT vendors through contracts within 90 days. Further, they must include a new prohibition on TikTok in all new solicitations within 120 days.
According to the memo, while some uses of the app on government devices may be permitted—such as for national security, law enforcement, or security research activities—blanket exemptions for entire agencies will not be permitted.
Chinese Spy App
China’s laws require any company within its borders to hand over information to its ruling communist regime, including any data collected by Beijing-based Byte Dance, TikTok’s parent company.Multiple elected officials and security experts have expressed concerns about TikTok being used as a tool for Chinese spying.
National security concerns about China heightened recently after a Chinese spy balloon floated over the United States. The surveillance balloon was shot down after several days, but not before it had moved over sensitive military installations.
The TikTok purge is part of the Biden administration’s “ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people’s security and privacy,” Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said, according to Reuters.
The White House’s move aligns with a bipartisan ban on federal employees using TikTok on government-owned devices voted on by Congress in December. That legislation gave the White House 60 days to issue agency directives.
The more than 100 million ordinary Americans who use TikTok on private or company devices are not included in the ban.
He described TikTok as “a spy balloon into your phone.”
“Currently, the courts have questioned the administration’s authority to sanction TikTok. My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten U.S. national security,” McCaul said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“And make no mistake—TikTok is a security threat. It allows the CCP to manipulate and monitor its users while it gobbles up Americans’ data to be used for their malign activities,” he continued. “Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP a backdoor to all their personal information.”
Bans in Multiple Countries
India, Taiwan, the European Union, and several U.S. states have already ordered similar bans. Canada also announced a ban earlier on Monday.Fortier said users would also be blocked from downloading the application in the future on government-issued devices.
“The decision to remove and block TikTok from government mobile devices is being taken as a precaution, particularly given concerns about the legal regime that governs the information collected from mobile devices, and is in line with the approach of our international partners,” the Treasury Board said.
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone.”
“To increase its cybersecurity, the [European] Commission’s Corporate Management Board has decided to suspend the use of the TikTok application on its corporate devices and on personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile device service,” it said in a statement.
TikTok Responds
In a statement obtained by The Epoch Times, a TikTok spokesperson called the bans “political theater” and urged the U.S. Congress to adopt a proposed Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) agreement.“The ban of TikTok on U.S. federal devices was passed in December without any deliberation, and unfortunately that approach has served as a blueprint for other world governments. These bans are little more than political theater,” the spokesperson said.
The TikTok spokesperson expressed concern about the potential for the popular video app to be banned from the personal devices of ordinary Americans outside of the government sphere.
“We hope that when it comes to addressing national security concerns about TikTok beyond government devices, U.S. Congress will explore solutions that won’t have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans,” the statement said.
“The swiftest and most thorough way to address any national security concerns about TikTok is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked with them on for nearly two years,” the statement continued. “These plans have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies, and we are well underway in implementing them to further secure our platform in the United States.”
