Ethan Carter
The app’s ban on government devices has been lifted as of 2022.
Officials from the Trump administration are now permitted to use TikTok freely, following a recent memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This memo marks a significant reversal of the 2022 regulation that prohibited the app on most government-issued devices.
The OMB memo references a prior opinion from the Justice Department, which clarified that the 2022 law is no longer applicable due to the current ownership structure of TikTok. The Justice Department indicated that TikTok is now owned by American stakeholders and utilizes a different recommendation algorithm than the version previously operated under ByteDance. The memo explicitly states, “TikTok may be used on government devices.”
This memo effectively concludes one of the last remnants of the TikTok bans. In 2022, the app was banned from most federal devices due to escalating concerns regarding its parent company’s connections to China. Officials under President Joe Biden, including FBI Director Chris Wray, expressed that the app posed a potential national security risk, although the specifics of this threat sparked considerable debate.
While intelligence officials did not publicly detail the exact risks associated with TikTok, lawmakers pointed to the app’s data collection methods and raised concerns about the possibility of the Chinese government influencing its recommendation algorithm.
The app experienced a temporary shutdown in the United States last year after President Biden enacted a law mandating ByteDance to divest from the app or face a ban. TikTok resumed operations once Trump took office, and a deal to separate the U.S. version of the app was finalized earlier this year. The U.S. version is now managed by TikTok USDS Joint Venture, a company backed by investors including Oracle and Silver Lake, while ByteDance retains a 19.9 percent ownership stake.
Several federal agencies have already started using TikTok for official communications. The Department of Transportation, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services launched new accounts last month following the Justice Department’s opinion. the White House established an official TikTok account the previous year.
Daniel Mercer
