US congress orders members and staff to delete ‘security risk’ TikTok

The cybersecurity unit said TikTok posed a ‘high risk to users due to a number of security risks’.

At least a dozen US states have taken action to restrict TikTok.

Members of the US congress and their staff have been ordered to delete TikTok from mobile phones issued by the House of Representatives.

The house cybersecurity unit has advised that TikTok posed a “high risk to users due to a number of security risks” amid concerns that the video-sharing app, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, is used as a surveillance tool by Beijing.

In a memo issued by house chief administrative officer Catherine Szpindor, all politicians and staff were directed to delete TikTok from their phones.

“House staff are NOT allowed to download the TikTok app on any House mobile devices,” the memo said.

“If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it.”

The move follows revelations last week that TikTok employees illegally sought to obtain the personal data of journalists reporting on the app and ByteDance in an attempt to trace the source of their coverage.

FBI director Christopher Wray told a congressional committee last month that TikTok raised national security concerns. The agency suspects that personal information on TikTok users, including location and phone data, has been leaked to the Chinese government.

A bill to ban TikTok from government-owned devices in the US was passed by the Senate this month and will soon be signed into law by President Joe Biden.  

Several government departments have already imposed bans, including the state, defence and homeland departments. The law will extend the ban throughout the administration.

At least a dozen states have also taken action to restrict TikTok, with Alabama and Utah the latest to ban the app from state-owned devices and networks.

TikTok remains popular in the US, with almost 90 million users last year. The app, which allows people to post video clips set to music, is used by about two-thirds of American teenagers.

Although only a handful of members of congress have TikTok accounts, the platform has grown in popularity among a new generation of politicians as a tool for reaching tens of millions of young voters. TikTok campaigns were deployed to boost voter registration and turnout among young Americans at the 2020 presidential campaign and last month’s midterm elections.

Questions about ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government have continued to follow TikTok even as the app’s popularity has exploded. Concerns have mounted that the app is a stealth spy tool for China, with claims that ByteDance is required to hand over any user data requested by the Chinese government.

Former president Donald Trump issued an executive order that banned TikTok in 2020 but the directive was blocked by the courts and withdrawn by Joe Biden last year. Since then, renewed political pressure for an outright ban has grown.

The Times