The US Parliament Officially Includes A Proposal Of The New Law, Prohibition Of TikTok On Government-Owned Devices

Republican Senator Josh Hawley, proposes the ban on TikTok. (photo: Twitter @NatConTalk)

JAKARTA - US lawmakers Tuesday morning, December 20 submitted a proposal to ban federal government employees from using the TikTok app made by Chinese companies on government-owned devices.

The Senate last week voted on Republican Senator Josh Hawley's bill to ban federal employees from using ByteDance's short video app on government-owned devices. It was the latest action by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies amid concerns about national security.

TikTok will soon be BANNED on all government devices

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 20, 2022

The ban is a massive omnibus action to fund US government operations expected to be selected this week. The bill gives the White House's 60-day Office of Management and Budget "to develop standards and guidelines for executive agencies requiring the removal of" TikTok from federal devices.

Reuters reported the proposed ban expected to be included in the previous law.

Last week's proposal received support from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and US House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.

Meanwhile, TikTok said the concern was largely fueled by misinformation. The law will not affect more than 100 million Americans who currently still use TikTok on personal or company-owned devices.

But many federal agencies, including the White House and the Ministry of Defense, Homeland Security, and the State Department, have banned TikTok from government-owned devices.

Last Monday, state agencies in Louisiana and West Virginia became the latest region to ban the use of TikTok on government devices for fear China could use it to track Americans and censor content.

About 19 of the 50 US states have now partially blocked access on government computers to TikTok. Most restrictions have emerged in the past two weeks.

In 2020, Republican President Donald Trump is trying to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that will effectively block the use of apps in the United States but lose a series of court battles.

The US government's foreign investment committee (CFIUS), a national security agency, has been working for months to reach a national security deal to protect US TikTok user data, but there seems to be no agreement to be reached before the end of this year.