Civil servants! Delete your Tik Tok! You've got 30 days, says the White House.
In a bid to keep U.S. data safe, all federal agencies must eliminate TikTok from phones and systems and prohibit internet traffic from reaching the company, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young told agencies in a guidance memorandum seen by Reuters. The ban, ordered by Congress late last year, follows similar actions from Canada, the EU, Taiwan and more than half of U.S. states.
Understandable for government devices, but the effort to ban the app entirely on "national security" grounds is ridiculous on its face. Here's GOP Rep. Mike McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
"Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the (Chinese Communist Party) a backdoor to all their personal information. It's a spy balloon into their phone."
