US House administration arm bans TikTok on official government devices

Popular Chinese video app TikTok has been banned from all US House of Representatives-managed devices, according to the House’s administration arm, mimicking a law soon to go into effect banning the app from US government devices.

The app is considered “high risk due to a number of security issues”, the House’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) said in a message sent to all lawmakers and staff on Tuesday, and must be deleted from all devices managed by the House.

The new rule follows a series of moves by US state governments to ban TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, from government devices. As of last week, 19 states have at least partially blocked the app from state-managed devices over concerns that the Chinese government could use the app to track Americans and censor content.

The US$1.66 trillion omnibus spending bill, passed last week to fund the US government through to September 30, 2023, includes a provision to ban the app on federally managed devices, and will take effect once US President Joe Biden signs the legislation into law.

“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,” a representative of the CAO told Reuters on Tuesday.