The US government mandates that agencies uninstall TikTok from all government-owned devices within 30 days. This order results from security concerns caused by the Chinese-owned social media application since it has been under massive scrutiny during hearings in Washington.
The Office of Management and Budget labelled the order as a critical method to address the dangers offered by the social media application to sensitive government information. The Department of Defence and Homeland Security and State has already placed a deadline for all their personnel.
In addition, the guidance calls on the remaining federal government to comply with the new rule within 30 days.
The White House has already put the nail in the coffin against government devices that has TikTok.
The current United States organisation has invested in defending their nation’s digital landscape and infrastructure by mitigating risks potentially offered by foreign applications such as TikTok. This newly deployed mandate is part of the Biden-led administration’s commitment to securing the American people’s security and privacy.
TikTok has been under intense scrutiny from government officials and US-based cybersecurity experts as it shows the potential for cyber threats against their data. Moreover, the United States Congress passed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act as early as December last year to protect the government funding package.
However, the legislation still allows the platform to be accessible in certain instances, such as for national security, research purposes, and law enforcement.
The ByteDance Ltd-owned app, TikTok, is still one of the most popularly used applications among teens in the United States. Unfortunately, the legislators are concerned since Beijing could have acquired American user data that the app collects in its terms and conditions.
The Chinese company has yet to be subjected to a total ban in the country since it is still developing security and data privacy plans to meet the requirements of the United State’s ongoing national security review.
In a related issue, Canada also announced earlier this week that TikTok is banned from all government-issued devices. Hence, other countries could follow the same order soon.
