Massive bill bans Chinese-owned TikTok from most fed gov’t phones

Say goodbye to dance videos on government phones.

The popular app TikTok will be banned on federal government devices once a shutdown-averting $1.7 trillion spending bill is signed into law by President Biden.

Though the bipartisan legislation was largely focused on funding the government, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) stuck in a provision banning TikTok on certain devices. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House speaker, supported the measure.

The rule will not apply to members of Congress and will include exceptions for law enforcement and national security.

Several state governments, following the lead of South Dakota, have also banned TikTok on government devices, citing security concerns.

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and conservative politicians have expressed concern about U.S. user data ending up in Chinese hands.

Executives at TikTok claim that the Chinese government does not have access to the data. But the company was recently caught snooping on two journalists, one for the Financial Times and one for BuzzFeed News, and accessing their location data.

Conservative lawmakers nationwide began targeting TikTok in 2020, with their outrage spiking when then-President Donald Trump promised to ban the app in the U.S.

The outrage dissipated as the presidential campaign heated up, and in 2021 President Biden ended any federal investigations into TikTok. But the app landed back on the chopping block in June when Buzzfeed News reported that U.S. user data on TikTok had been accessed from China.