The White House bans Tik Tok

The White House has ordered government agencies 30 days to ensure that there is no TikTok app on any of the federal government’s devices or systems.

They will be required to amend IT contracts to ensure that contractors protect US data by stopping the use of TikTok on devices and systems used in their framework, Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a guidance note.

The US presidency said that the Office of Management and Budget in the White House had instructed all departments and agencies of the federal government to implement within 30 days the ban imposed by a law passed by Congress at the end of December, according to which it was forbidden to download the application on any device or phone belonging to the government.

This came in a memorandum issued by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, Shalanda Young, in implementation of the law that President Joe Biden published in early January.

In turn, the Canadian government banned, on Monday, the “Tik Tok” application on all its phones and devices, citing data protection concerns.

A TikTok spokesperson was surprised by the Canadian decision to ban the app, saying it was taken “without mentioning any specific security concerns” or consulting with the company.

And the TikTok application, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been under the microscope of the West for months due to concerns about the extent of Beijing’s access to user data.

Last week, the European Commission banned the application on its devices.