White House gives US federal agencies 30 days to purge Chinese-owned video-snippet sharing app TikTok from all govt-issued devices & systems

Washington: The White House has given US federal agencies 30 days to purge Chinese-owned video-snippet sharing app TikTok from all government-issued devices and systems, setting a deadline to comply with a ban ordered by the US Congress.

In a bid to keep US data safe, Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young in a memorandum called on government agencies to remove and disallow installations of the application on agency-owned or operated IT devices, and to prohibit internet traffic from such devices to the app, within 30 days. The ban does not apply to businesses in the United States not associated with the federal government, or to the millions of private citizens of the country who use the hugely popular app.

Owned by Chinese



tech giant ByteDance, TikTok has become a political target due to concerns the globally popular app can be circumvented for spying or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.

The law signed by US President Joe Biden last month bans the use of TikTok on government-issued devices. The law also bans TikTok use in the US House of Representatives and Senate.

National security concerns in the country over alleged China spying have grown over the past month after a Chinese balloon traversed US airspace and was eventually shot down.

The Canadian government on Monday banned TikTok from all of its phones and other devices, citing fears about how much access Beijing has to user data.