US Senate votes to keep TikTok off government devices as more states push to do the same
- National legislation still needs to be approved by the House and signed by President Biden to become law
- North Dakota and Iowa also became the latest states to prohibit TikTok on state-owned devices, a trend TikTok said is ‘based on unfounded falsehoods’
The US Senate late on Wednesday passed by voice vote a bill to bar federal employees from using Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok on government-owned devices.
The bill must still be approved by the US House of Representatives before going to President Joe Biden for approval. The House of Representatives would need to pass the Senate bill before the current congressional session ends, which is expected next week.
The vote is the latest action on the part of US lawmakers to crackdown on Chinese companies amid national security fears that Beijing could use them to spy on Americans.
During the last Congress, the Senate in August 2020 unanimously approved legislation to bar TikTok from government devices. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Josh Hawley, reintroduced the legislation in 2021.
Many federal agencies, including the Defence, Homeland Security and State departments, already ban TikTok from government-owned devices. “TikTok is a major security risk to the United States, and it has no place on government devices,” Hawley said previously.
