Washington: According to the House's administration branch, the well-known Chinese video app TikTok is being removed from all devices under the control of the U.S. House of Representatives, mimicking a law that will soon take effect that will remove the app from devices under the control of the U.S. government.
The app must be removed from all devices controlled by the House as it is deemed "high risk due to a number of security issues," the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the House stated in a memo addressed to all legislators and staff on Tuesday.
The new regulation comes in response to many efforts by American state governments to prohibit TikTok, which is run by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd, from being used on official platforms. Because of worries that the Chinese government would use the app to follow Americans and censor content, 19 states have at least partially barred the app from state-managed smartphones as of last week.
The ban on the app on devices under federal management is part of the $1.66 trillion omnibus spending bill, which was passed last week and will fund the federal government through September 30, 2023. It will go into effect after President Joe Biden signs the bill into law, Reuters reported.
"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 spokesperson for the Chief Administrative Officer told Reuters on Tuesday.
The employees were informed that future downloads of TikTok were forbidden and that anyone found to have the app installed on their smartphone would be contacted to have it removed.
A request for comments regarding the new rule was not immediately answered by TikTok.
A proposal from US politicians to ban the app nationally has been made