House of Representatives bans staff use of 'high risk' TikTok

AppleInsider

Staff and lawmakers in the House of Representatives have been ordered to uninstall TikTok from their iPhones, iPads, and Android devices.

TikTok on a smartphone

The US government has previously threatened to ban TikTok from the App Store entirely, though deadlines for Apple and Google to comply were xjref. More recently, despite the issue being outside the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been pressing for a total ban.

Now according to CNBC, the House of Representatives has instigated an immediate ban on the video-sharing service for all its staff.

The House's Chief Administrative Officer Catherine L. Szpindor reportedly issued a memo after her cybersecurity staff concluded that TikTok represented a "high risk to users due to a number of security risks."

Consequently, staff and lawmakers were directed to either not download the app, or to uninstall it if they had already got it on their phones.

"House staff are NOT allowed to download the TikTok app on any House mobile devices," said the memo seen by CNBC. "If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it."

CNBC notes that part of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress earlier in December, includes a TikTok ban. That bill's measure regarded a ban of the app from some government devices, plus all executive branch devices, though not members of Congress and their staff.

Similarly, the new directive from the House does not apply to the Senate.

TikTok has not commented publicly on the ban, however it has previously said that it was working to "meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at both the federal and state level."

"These plans have been developed under the oversight of our country's top national security agencies -- plans that we are well underway in implementing -- to further secure our platform in the United States," said the company, "and we will continue to brief lawmakers on them."

AppleInsider will be covering the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in person on January 2 through January 8 where we're expecting Wi-Fi 6e devices, HomeKit, Apple accessories, 8K monitors and more. Keep up with our coverage by downloading the AppleInsider app, and follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos throughout the event.

Read on AppleInsider

JP234

Guess House members didn't want everyone watching their bad choices anymore.
No one wants to see Reps or Senators doing funny dances. (Well, maybe AOC - she's adorable)
Don't believe it? Here ya go:

9secondkox2

Any government employee should be banned from TikTok. Actually… TikTok should be banned in the USA. It’s basically just a spy tool for the Chinese government, regardless of the front corps that covers for it. 

How it’s still available is beyond reason. 

ronn

Should have been implemented a while ago. It's nothing but a CCP spy tool

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists

rob53

Same could be said about Twitter and Facebook. Rules for government owned devices already limit what the user can access. Of course these have been constantly violated, especially during the last administration. 

waveparticle

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

ihatescreennames

Is there no MDM used for government devices? Why do people need to be asked to remove it?

rob53

ihatescreennames said:

Is there no MDM used for government devices? Why do people need to be asked to remove it?

Yes. Most MDMs don’t allow end-user installation of apps but that only works when people are forced to use it. Of course I bet most government users have two phones. Problem is too many use private phone for doing government business even though that’s illegal. 

lkrupp

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

Maybe the NSA, CIA, and the U.S. Military know something you don’t. But then you’re just a Chinese government operative spreading disinformation and propaganda. And who are you to be talking about democracy when your leader is a vicious despot.

macxpress

lkrupp said:

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

Maybe the NSA, CIA, and the U.S. Military know something you don’t. But then you’re just a Chinese government operative spreading disinformation and propaganda. And who are you to be talking about democracy when your leader is a vicious despot.

But it's perfectly okay for the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc, etc to spy on every one of us everyday isn't it. 

ronn

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

No, it's not. Tiktok has admitted that user info was being assessed from China. Despite its repeated assurances and promises that that would never happen. There were at least 80 meetings where this was discussed internally. And recently Tiktok personnel either resigned or were fired because of its spying on journalists. Again, congressional and governmental employees should have been banned from using the app years ago. And probably just outright be banned in the U.S.

lkrupp

macxpress said:

lkrupp said:

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

Maybe the NSA, CIA, and the U.S. Military know something you don’t. But then you’re just a Chinese government operative spreading disinformation and propaganda. And who are you to be talking about democracy when your leader is a vicious despot.

But it's perfectly okay for the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc, etc to spy on every one of us everyday isn't it. 

I’d trust the U.S. intelligence services before any foreign outfit. You goddamn U.S. government haters and your paranoid deep state shit have read too much crap from your right wing lunatic fringe.

DAalseth

It brings up an important question though. Yes they can mandate that it’s not on any system belonging to the government or that is used for government business or during office ours. that’s fine. But do they have the legal authority to tell their staff what to do on their own time, with their own machines, at their own place of residence? These aren’t people in the military, they are civilian employees. 

DAalseth

lkrupp said:

macxpress said:

lkrupp said:

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

Maybe the NSA, CIA, and the U.S. Military know something you don’t. But then you’re just a Chinese government operative spreading disinformation and propaganda. And who are you to be talking about democracy when your leader is a vicious despot.

But it's perfectly okay for the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc, etc to spy on every one of us everyday isn't it. 

I’d trust the U.S. intelligence services before any foreign outfit. You goddamn U.S. government haters and your paranoid deep state shit have read too much crap from your right wing lunatic fringe.

I object to that characterization. I got my beliefs from LEFT wing lunatic fringe sources. 

🤣

StrangeDays

As they should. TikTok/ByteDance is a CCP-run propaganda device, that has been busted for spying on Americans and reporters. They’re an intelligence threat.

https://mashable.com/article/tiktok-spying-internal-report-us-users

StrangeDays

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

Incorrect. ByteDance is spyware for the CPP, which itself is a threat to democracy, no question. They aren’t a democracy. 

It’s been reported on everywhere — ByteDance used TikTok data to spy on Americans and journalists. 

https://mashable.com/article/tiktok-spying-internal-report-us-users

StrangeDays

macxpress said:

lkrupp said:

waveparticle said:

This is frivolous to the lowest level. TikTok is an entertaining tool. Government building is for working. Of course it is inappropriate to use TikTok. But making it a national security issue is a plot by China haters to silence democracy. 

Maybe the NSA, CIA, and the U.S. Military know something you don’t. But then you’re just a Chinese government operative spreading disinformation and propaganda. And who are you to be talking about democracy when your leader is a vicious despot.

But it's perfectly okay for the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc, etc to spy on every one of us everyday isn't it. 

Who is saying that? Where? There are rules for which agencies to spy on whom, and when the rules are broken it’s big news — like when Snowden exposed it. Maybe you heard of this?

StrangeDays

rob53 said:

Same could be said about Twitter and Facebook. Rules for government owned devices already limit what the user can access. Of course these have been constantly violated, especially during the last administration. 

No, the same cannot be said. If Twitter or Facebook give user data to the government in order to conduct surveillance on journalists and activists, it will be major, major news. 

TikTok is a spy device for the CCP. 

jdw

I've long been an advocate for freedom here on the forum when it comes to comments under all articles, not just a select few.  So naturally, I found it interesting to see comments finally allowed under a clearly POLITICAL post.  However, I'm not getting too excited because I've seen such freedoms inconsistently applied before, with one political article allowing comments and another (no more or less controversial) disallowing comments. 

Perhaps 2023 will bring a consistent level of comment freedom under all articles for a refreshing change.  

Why "refreshing"?  Because I enjoy reading the comments about as much, and sometimes more, than the articles under which the comments are found.  It also reflects positively on AppleInsider who isn't scared by freer speech.  I think it has the potential to bring more people into the forum dialog, which in turn could enhance readership.

Anyway, thank you AppleInsider for comment freedom under this article.  Keep it up!

 – – – – –

Now for those of you who actually like TikTok, I am guess you must either be much younger people or new tech thrill seekers.  I believe in staying young at heart, but not much really appeals to me about short videos of mostly young females dancing around or lip-syncing to current music on TikTok.  Probably why YouTube's copy-cat "shorts" or FaceBook "Reels" don't really interest me either.  Those short videos basically boil down to a modern way to waste one's time.  At least with a full length YouTube video or a FaceBook group about vintage Macs I have the potential to learn something new and practical such that it really DOESN'T waste my time.

As to the US government security implications, well, I don't trust the US government a whole lot more than the Chinese government, although China does crack down on its people far more and do even more stupidly outlandish (and horrific) things.  The consistent CENSORSHIP of speech upsets me most, which makes China lower on the scale of trust than the US government.  Even so, all governments need to come under scrutiny by individual citizens.  Indeed, citizens need to have the power and right to throw out a bad government and replace it with a new if they ultimately find a system is broken beyond repair.  But when two super-power governments are rivals, spyware and other tactics will often be used.  In the end, average people are always caught in the middle.  It's sad that humanity is so fragile and imperfect so as to need the iron fist of government.  And I am no anarchist either.  Because governments are basically the creations of average people, we average people are basically our own demise.  We ultimately just float along through life trying to make something reasonably good of an overall bad situation.

dewme

rob53 said:

ihatescreennames said:

Is there no MDM used for government devices? Why do people need to be asked to remove it?

Yes. Most MDMs don’t allow end-user installation of apps but that only works when people are forced to use it. Of course I bet most government users have two phones. Problem is too many use private phone for doing government business even though that’s illegal. 

That was my first question too. The MDM tool that my employer uses doesn’t allow access to the public AppStore. All app installations and updates are managed by the MDM system, which actually introduces some additional risks if it introduces a delay in rolling out updates to zero day vulnerabilities. 

Private devices in a controlled environment are a challenge for infosec and security in general. In general all managed systems are air-gapped from external points of ingress. It is possible to create a very secure environment but doing so is very expensive and potentially disruptive to productivity. But there are obviously cases and agencies where it’s totally nonnegotiable. The biggest threats to government systems imho come from nonprofessionals, I.e., political appointees who are allowed to circumvent rules and procedures that the professional and career employees would be fired on the spot for not following. It’s just one of the “oddities” of the US form of government, where totally clueless idiots are often put in charge of some of the most critical systems known to man.

By the way, someone mentioned that non military government employees should be able to basically do whatever they want in their personal lives. This is not the case when those people have government issued security clearances. This applies to both government employees with security clearances but also to individuals in private industry who’ve been granted government security clearances. The agencies who grant those clearances can totally get up in your shorts as a condition for you having the security clearance, up to and including revoking your clearance for violating laws or engaging in activities that seemingly have nothing to do with your job. If your employer requires you to obtain a government security clearance as a condition of employment you can lose your job. 

danox

“Lunatic fringe 
I know you're out there 
You're in hiding, and you hold your meetings 
I can hear you coming 
I know what you're after 
We're wise to you this time (wise to you this time) 
We won't let you kill the laughter“

TikTok