News, 28.12.2022, 09:30 AM
The administration of the House of Representatives of the US Congress informed all employees and representatives that the TikTok application, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, will be banned from all official devices.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency considers the “TikTok mobile app to be highly risky for users due to a number of security risks,” said the House of Representatives’ chief administration official.
Employees “are not permitted to download the TikTok app to any House mobile device.” Those who have the TikTok app on their official mobile phone, you will be contacted to remove it.
TikTok poses a risk to Congress because it “actively collects” biometrics and other sensitive user information. TikTok has dismissed these claims, calling them “false”.
Congress last week passed a $1.7 billion funding bill for the US government that included a provision banning TikTok from all government devices amid growing concerns about the Chinese-owned app. The law has yet to be signed by President Joe Biden.
Another bill, introduced in Congress earlier this month, would ban the app for everyone in the US. As many as 19 states have banned TikTok on state-owned devices in recent weeks.
US officials have long expressed fears that the popular app could be used to spy on Americans or collect their data, and that Beijing could use it to manipulate people through the app’s algorithm.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said earlier this month that the Chinese government could use TikTok for “influence operations” or to compromise devices.
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that does not share our values and that has a mission that is very much at odds with what is in the best interests of the United States.” That should worry us,” Ray said.
