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Congress is about to ban TikTok from U.S. government phones in spending bill : NPR


TikTok will be banned on most US government devices under a government spending bill that Congress announced early Tuesday, the latest push by US lawmakers against the app. Chinese-owned social media apps.

Michael Dwyer/AP


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Michael Dwyer/AP


TikTok will be banned on most US government devices under a government spending bill that Congress announced early Tuesday, the latest push by US lawmakers against the app. Chinese-owned social media apps.

Michael Dwyer/AP

Having TikTok on a device released by the federal government is about to become illegal under a Sprawling bills for the upcoming fiscal year announced by lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday. It is expected to become law in the coming days to prevent a partial government shutdown.

While the Chinese-owned app has already been disallowed for use on many federal government devices, the measure in the new spending bill expands the ban. The ban will likely hurt TikTok’s reputation at a time when the Biden administration is still trying to complete a national security review of the popular app.

TikTok is used by over 100 million monthly active users in the United States alone, and its ability to generate instant viral hits has catapulted it to the forefront of internet culture, despite concerns Concerns about data security have haunted this application for a long time.

If you consider yourself one of its users and you’re wondering how this crackdown might affect you, here’s what you need to know:

Will this affect my use of TikTok?

Probably not — unless you’re a federal government employee using your work phone to browse TikTok. The White House, Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, and State Department have banned employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices, so the ban only extends the rule to all US government employees. Ky. More than a dozen states have through similar The TikTok ban on devices was issued by the state government.

Why did the ban happen?

Republicans and Democrats alike has long targeted TikTok, as it is owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance. Lawmakers worry about the Chinese Communist Party using the app to spy on Americans or using the app’s algorithms to amplify pro-China stories.

While the company denies it will be used for nefarious purposes, national security experts say China-based businesses are often required to provide free access to authoritarian regimes. if information is searched.

Former President Trump tried – and failure – ban TikTok completely. And federal lawmakers have proposed more punitive anti-TikTok bills but have failed to gain traction.

So the federal government’s ban on devices is an incremental constraint: Most drastic measures have not progressed, because the efforts lacked political will, or court intervention to prevent them.

“I think there are some concerns about TikTok,” said Julian McAuley, a computer science professor at the University of California San Diego. The main difference between TikTok and other social media apps is that TikTok is more driven by users. -Specific recommendations.

Arguably this means TikTok could be more open to having that feed being manipulated to achieve some malicious goal, McAuley said.

What evidence suggests that TikTok is a national security threat?

There is not much solid evidence. The lawsuit against TikTok is largely of the “theoretically possible” category. But because TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, the hypothetical risk of millions of Americans potentially becoming targets of espionage at the hands of a rival government has Washington on alert. FBI Director Chris Wray has said that TikTok is a national security threat, saying the app can “manipulate content and if they want to, they will use it for influence activities.”

Digging deep into how safe TikTok is for US users is something that even privacy pundits can’t quickly grasp.

Sameer Patil, a professor at the University of Utah who studies online user privacy, said: “Although ByteDance claims that it maintains its operations in the United States separately, it does not. any easy way to determine how true that statement is”.

One report in BuzzFeed found TikTok owner ByteDance once used another app the company owns to push content sympathetic to the Chinese government. That app, separate from TikTok, no longer exists. However, some observers wondered: If ByteDance is willing to do that for one of its previous services, why not try doing the same on TikTok?

That’s a question the company refutes. Earlier this year, TikTok announced an initiative that will route “100% of US user traffic” to servers controlled by American technology company Oracle. TikTok says it is working on deleting US users’ private data from its servers and moving all of it to a server hosted in the US, with backup storage in Singapore.

McAuley said that TikTok, like all major social media companies, is collecting vast amounts of personal data from the people who use the app, though he questions exactly what TikTok can do with those who use the app. What it knows: user’s age, contact information, viewing habits, search history, location.

“While social media companies are certainly collecting all kinds of data about users, I think it is often overstated in terms of how much they ‘know’ about their users,” he said. individual level.

Patil said if TikTok users are concerned about their privacy, he suggests limiting posts to friends only and removing location data from videos, which can be done in the app’s settings. .

What are the chances of TikTok being banned more widely in the US?

It’s still possible, but it doesn’t appear to be imminent.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful federal panel that reviews foreign investment in the United States, has begun examining TikTok under the Trump administration, and the investigation is still ongoing. onion.

The Commission may establish a broader TikTok ban or may force the app sold to an American company, something the Chinese government would likely strongly oppose, like when such a sale was floated during the Trump years.

Another possible solution is for the committee to be pleased with the steps TikTok has taken to ensure there is a firewall between US user data, ByteDance employees in Beijing, and the Chinese government.

CFIUS discussions are notoriously secret and take place behind closed doors. It is not clear when the commission may end its investigation, nor in which direction it is leaning.

How has TikTok reacted to the latest action?

Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said the company is disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices, calling the move “a political gesture that won’t help interests.” National security.”

Oberwetter said TikTok believes in the CFIUS process, which focuses on ensuring the video app is not manipulated by Chinese government influence.

“The agreement being reviewed by CFIUS will meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at both the federal and state levels,” said Oberwetter. “These plans have been developed under the supervision of our country’s top national security agencies — plans that we’re working on well ahead of time — to further secure our foundation. we are in the United States and we will continue to keep legislators informed about them.”

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