File photo of Tiktok logo | photo credit: Reuters
US lawmakers will include a proposal to bar federal government employees from using Chinese app TikTok on government-owned equipment In a major spending bill, sources told Reuters on Monday.
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The Senate last week voted on a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley to prevent federal employees from using the ByteDance-owned short video app on government-owned equipment. It was the latest action by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies amid national security fears.
The sanctions are set to be included in a massive omnibus measure to fund US government operations, which is expected to be voted on this week, the sources said.
The proposal won the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy last week.
TikTok has said that the concern has largely been fueled by misinformation. The law will not affect the more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok on personal or company-owned devices.
Several federal agencies, including the White House and the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, have already banned TikTok from government-owned equipment.
In addition, on Monday, government agencies in Louisiana and West Virginia banned the use of TikTok on government equipment due to concerns that China could use it to track Americans and censor content.
Some 19 of the 50 US states have now at least partially blocked access to TikTok on government computers. Most of the restrictions have come within the last two weeks.
In 2020, Republican then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions, effectively blocking use of the app in the United States, but a series of court battles Lost
The US government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security body, has been seeking for months to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of US TikTok users, but it appears that the year is over. No deal will be done before the end of . ,