WASHINGTON: US lawmakers will include a proposal to ban federal government employees from using Chinese apps TikTok on government-owned equipment in a key spending bill, sources told Reuters on Monday.
The Senate last week voted on a bill sponsored by a Republican Senator Josh Hawley to ban federal employees from using the ByteDance-owned short video app on government-owned devices. It is the latest move by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies amid national security concerns.
The sources said the ban would be included in a large aggregate measure to fund US government operations that is expected to be voted on this week.
Last week’s proposal won the support of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
TikTok has said that the concerns are largely fueled by misinformation. The law will not affect the more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok on company-owned or personally-owned devices.
Many federal agencies, including The White House and the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State, have banned TikTok from government-owned devices.
Also on Monday, state agencies in Louisiana and West Virginia became the latest to ban the use of TikTok on government devices over concerns that China could use it to spy on Americans and content moderation.
About 19 of the 50 US states now have at least partially blocked access to TikTok on government computers. Most of the restrictions came within the past two weeks.
In 2020, then-President of the Republican Party Donald Trump tried to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked use of the app in the United States, but lost a series of lawsuits.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security agency of the US government, has for months been trying to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok users. in the United States , but it looks like no deal will be reached before the end of the year .
The Senate last week voted on a bill sponsored by a Republican Senator Josh Hawley to ban federal employees from using the ByteDance-owned short video app on government-owned devices. It is the latest move by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies amid national security concerns.
The sources said the ban would be included in a large aggregate measure to fund US government operations that is expected to be voted on this week.
Last week’s proposal won the support of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
TikTok has said that the concerns are largely fueled by misinformation. The law will not affect the more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok on company-owned or personally-owned devices.
Many federal agencies, including The White House and the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State, have banned TikTok from government-owned devices.
Also on Monday, state agencies in Louisiana and West Virginia became the latest to ban the use of TikTok on government devices over concerns that China could use it to spy on Americans and content moderation.
About 19 of the 50 US states now have at least partially blocked access to TikTok on government computers. Most of the restrictions came within the past two weeks.
In 2020, then-President of the Republican Party Donald Trump tried to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked use of the app in the United States, but lost a series of lawsuits.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security agency of the US government, has for months been trying to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok users. in the United States , but it looks like no deal will be reached before the end of the year .
