US Senate passes bill to bar use of TikTok by federal employees on government devices

In a huge step towards barring the popular video sharing app TikTok in the country, the US Senate late on Wednesday passed by voice vote a bill to bar federal employees from using it on government-owned devices. The US House of Representatives needs to approve it as well before it can be sent to President Joe Biden for approval. This needs to happen before the current congressional session ends, which is expected next week.

Several officials have been raising concerns that Beijing could use the app to spy on Americans, risking national security.

Many states have already passed a similar order banning the use of the ByteDance-owned app on government devices and networks. North Dakota and Iowa joined the list this week, which already comprises Texas, Maryland, South Dakota, Alabama and Utah.

The Senate in August 2020, during the last Congress, had unanimously approved legislation to bar TikTok from government devices. Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who had sponsored the bill, reintroduced the legislation in 2021.

Many federal agencies, such as the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments have already ban TikTok from government-owned devices. "TikTok is a major security risk to the United States, and it has no place on government devices," Hawley said previously.

Meanwhile, reacting to the blocking, TikTok says the concerns are largely fueled by misinformation and the company is happy to meet with policymakers to discuss the company's practices.

"We're disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States," the company said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio had announced bipartisan legislation to ban the Chinese video sharing app amid fears the app could be used to spy on Americans and censure content. Rubio also is a sponsor of Hawley's TikTok government device ban bill. The legislation will block all transactions from any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia, Rubio's office said.

FBI Director Chris Wray had said at a hearing last month that TikTok's US operations raise national security concerns, saying that there is a risk that the Chinese government could harness it to influence users or control their devices.

In 2020, the then-president Donald Trump had tried to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions, effectively blocking the apps' use in the United States. However, he lost a series of court battles over the measure.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, had ordered ByteDance in 2020 to divest TikTok to allay fears that user data could be passed to the Chinese government. However, the company has not done any such thing yet.

CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for months to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok's more than 100 million users.

(With inputs from agencies)

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