The ban comes after a wave of actions against the viral video app in recent weeks amid mounting security concerns raised by media reports, China hawks and politicians.

President Joe Biden approved a limited TikTok ban Thursday when he signed the 4,126-page spending bill into law. The ban prohibits the use of TikTok by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies, with limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes.

Citing TikTok as a ‘high risk’ security concern, the Chinese short-video app has been banned from all federal government devices across the US. The only exception is for law enforcement and national security agencies that can use the app in special cases for security research purposes. 

The ban comes after a wave of actions against the viral video app in recent weeks amid mounting security concerns raised by media reports, China hawks and politicians. Given the increasing scrutiny of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, it could be just the beginning of challenges to come for the app.

The decision essentially means that nearly four million government employees will have to mandatorily remove TikTok from the mobile devices and other gadgets issued to them. Biden’s recently signed $1.7 trillion spending bill contains a provision that outlaws the ByteDance-owned app. 

“We’re disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices – a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests – rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review,” said Brooke Oberwetter, TikTok spokesperson regarding the ban. 

Notably, the decision comes in the backdrop of several states across the country coming out with their policies banning the app. It was South Dakota governor Kristi Noem that set the ball rolling last month by issuing an executive order and banning the use of the app. 

“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,” said Noem in a statement posted on Twitter. 

Afterwards, it was North Dakota, Alabama, Utah Maryland and Texas that followed the suit. 

Previously, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also warned against data leaks through the app. Director Christopher Wray told a House panel that potential Chinese government access to users’ data or software through the app is reason to be “extremely concerned”.

Wray added that ByteDance embeds specific application programming interfaces (APIs) in the app which gives Beijing access to “control data collection of millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm”. Some of the state bans apply not just to state government employees, but also to students and anyone else using campus Wi-Fi at state schools such as the University of Oklahoma and Auburn University in Alabama — part of TikTok’s core user base in the U.S. 

The crusade against the Chinese app was started by former president Donald Trump. However, after Biden came to power, he withdrew Trump’s executive orders that sought to ban the downloads. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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