TikTok along with other platforms owned by the China-based company ByteDance will be removed from all House-managed devices on August 15, 2024. The chief administrative officer (CAO) of the chamber announced this decision, marking another step in Congress’s efforts to address national security concerns related to the popular TikTok app.
“Starting August 15, 2024, the CAO Office of Cybersecurity will initiate the block and removal of all ByteDance products from all House-managed devices and app stores,” Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor wrote in a memo to House staffers obtained by The Hill. She emphasized that “ByteDance applications are NOT ALLOWED on any House device.” The list of banned platforms includes TikTok, CapCut, Hypic, Lark, and Lemon8.
This directive builds on a previous action from December 2022, when the CAO office instructed all lawmakers and staffers to remove TikTok from their official House phones, citing the platform as a “high risk to users due to a number of security risks.” At that time, staffers were also prohibited from downloading the app on House mobile devices. The new memo, however, takes this a step further by actively removing the app from devices and warning staff of this upcoming action.
This House directive is part of a broader concern within the U.S. government regarding TikTok and other foreign-owned apps. A potential Congress TikTok ban looms over the platform more broadly. In April, Congress passed and President Biden signed a bill that included language mandating a nationwide ban on the platform within a year unless ByteDance divests from the app. This move reflects growing concerns over the influence of foreign-owned apps and the potential risks they pose to national security.
As TikTok faces increasing scrutiny and regulatory action in the U.S., the platform’s future remains uncertain. The escalating efforts to ban TikTok from government devices and potentially across the nation highlight the ongoing tensions between technology, privacy, and national security.
