US Government Employees Now Allowed To Download TikTok On Official Devices
The US Justice Department has reversed a previous ban, allowing federal employees to use TikTok on government devices following a restructuring of the app's US operations. The new joint venture, TikTok USDS, is designed to secure user data and algorithms within the United States.
Why it matters
This shift marks a significant change in US policy toward Chinese-owned technology platforms, emphasizing data sovereignty and corporate restructuring over outright bans.
The US Justice Department said on Friday that federal employees can now download the short-video app TikTok on government devices.A 2022 law banned federal employees from using the app on government devices, citing national security concerns, but a department opinion released on Friday said it no longer applies, citing a deal by TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to transfer control of the app's U.S. user data and operations to the joint venture TikTok USDS that was completed in January.In January, TikTok said the venture will retrain, test and update TikTok's content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data and the algorithm will be secured in Oracle's U.S. cloud. Oracle is one of the venture's three main investors.The memorandum opinion to President Donald Trump said the current version of TikTok does not pose risks.
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