The White House has granted federal agencies 30 days on Monday to guarantee that their workers do not have the application of the TikTok social network on any government device.
The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, has indicated in a guide that contemplates few exceptions that agencies must identify the presence of the application, establish an internal process to limit the use, eliminate and deauthorize the facilities and prohibit Internet traffic of information technologies belonging to the agencies.
Within 90 days, agencies must include in contracts that the app cannot be used on devices and must cancel any contracts that require use of the app.
In December, TikTok — owned by Chinese company ByteDance — made a change to its privacy policy, giving Chinese employees access to data from European users, though it’s unclear exactly what data they have access to. these employees and which employees are involved.
US officials have repeatedly expressed concern that the Chinese government could pressure ByteDance to hand over information collected from users to be used for intelligence or disinformation purposes, CNN reports.
In addition to the United States, Canada and the European Union have also announced a ban on officials from using TikTok on official mobile phones, due to concerns about cybersecurity and protection of user data.
However, TikTok has rejected such a possibility and considered the decision adopted by the community institutions last week as “wrong” and based “on misconceptions.”
