Early Tuesday, US senators included a proposal in a critical spending package to prohibit federal government employees from using the Chinese app TikTok on government-owned devices.
The Senate last week voted on a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley to prevent federal employees from using the Byte Dance-owned short video app on government-owned devices. It was the latest move by US politicians to push down on Chinese firms over national security concerns.
The restriction is included in a big omnibus bill to support US government operations, which is anticipated to be voted on this week. The bill gives the White House Office of Management and Budget 60 days to “create criteria and procedures for executive agencies requiring the removal” of TikTok from federal devices.
Reuters reported earlier that the planned prohibition would be included in the law.
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy both endorsed the measure.
by misinformation. The legislation would have no effect on the more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok on personal or business-owned devices.
Many federal institutions, including the White House and the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State, have already prohibited TikTok from being used on government-owned devices.
On Monday, Louisiana and West Virginia became the latest states to prohibit the use of TikTok on government devices, citing concerns that China could use it to track Americans and censor content.
Some 19 of the 50 U.S. states have now at least partially blocked access on government computers to TikTok. Most of the restrictions came within the past two weeks.
In 2020, Republican then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and to ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked the app’s use in the United States but lost a series of court battles.
The U.S. government Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security body, has for months sought to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of U.S. TikTok users, but it appears no deal will be reached before year’s end.
