White House Undoes TikTok Ban on Government Devices, Citing New Ownership

The White House has ended its ban on the use of TikTok on federal government devices, saying the shift of the app’s U.S. operations to American investors has made it no longer a national security threat, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Aug. 11).

The Office of Management and Budget rescinded the 2023 directive that implemented the ban when TikTok was owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, according to the report.

The OMB’s decision came about a month after the Justice Department released a written opinion that concluded that TikTok no longer qualified as a “covered institution” under a 2022 law that led to the ban of the app, per the report.

In its slip opinion published July 16, the Justice Department said that the ban had been applied by the No TikTok on Government Devices Act of 2022.

“The version of TikTok operated by the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture does not fall within this prohibition because the Joint Venture functions independently of ByteDance, is majority-owned by U.S. investors, and has revised the content-recommendation algorithm and cybersecurity program originally developed by ByteDance to insulate federal government information against the concerning security features that initially motivated the prohibition,” the Justice Department said in the slip opinion.

The TikTok USDS Joint Venture announced in January that as a new, majority American-owned joint venture, it would enable TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S.

The joint venture has three managing investors—Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX—each of which holds 15%. ByteDance retains 19.9% of the joint venture, with the remainder of the stakes in the joint venture being held by a consortium of other investors.

TikTok USDS Joint Venture is designed to protect U.S. national security and comply with President Donald Trump’s Sept. 25 executive order through data privacy and cybersecurity measures, robust trust and safety policies, content moderation, transparent reporting and third-party certifications, the organization said at the time in a press release.

Trump said Jan. 22 post on Truth Social that TikTok will now be “owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice.”