US government officials are banned from using TikTok on their personal phones

While after the termination of Donald Trump’s presidency marked the end of overt anti-China discourse in the upper government echelons, it did not end the phobia of Chinese intervention in the online sphere. 

Last week, the government of Texas banned TikTok from government devices. It is not isolated in its concerns – including Texas, there are already five states, which have chosen to remain cautious against the Chinese social media app. The other states are: Nebraska, Maryland, South Carolina and South Dakota. 

While bureaucrats have previously discussed limiting all general use of the app, thus far it has proven to be a too provocative move to be executed in life. 

TikTok has access to vast amounts of its users’ data, including when, where and what kind of content they were producing. While the company has denied any accusations of sharing this information with the Chinese government, it has not been able to showcase convincing evidence that would support this claim. 

These concerns aren’t borne by individual states alone – the federal government has taken significant steps in limiting the app’s presence on the phones of people working at the departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security. What is more, under the direction of the current President Biden, US security forces have continued Trump’s 2020 policy of closely monitoring the company’s activities online.