U.S. Senate bans government employees from using TikTok

American civil servants can no longer use TikTok. But soon other applications developed in totalitarian countries may also be banned.

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Members of the U.S. Senate voted unanimously in favor of Senator Josh Hawley's bill. It bans the use of TikTok on all smartphones and other devices that belong to the government. The U.S. is concerned that the app's developer, ByteDance, may be collecting data and sharing it with Chinese authorities. A month earlier, FBI Director Chris Wray said the Chinese government could technically compromise millions of devices through TikTok.

Senator Josh Hawley called TikTok a "Trojan horse" for the Chinese Communist Party. The official believes the app has no place on devices that belong to the U.S. government. In response to the Senate vote, TikTok representative Brooke Oberwetter said that the decision in no way promotes the national security interests of the United States.

Note that another, more radical bill is under consideration. It would completely ban TikTok, as well as other applications developed in China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela or countries under their control. Senator Marco Rubio, one of the authors of the bill, criticized the government for not taking any meaningful steps to protect Americans from the threat posed by TikTok.

Source: Engadget