U.S. Department of Justice: Downloading TikTok on Federal Devices Is No Longer Illegal
The U.S. Department of Justice has determined this week that the federal law prohibiting the use of TikTok on government devices no longer applies to the social video application. This decision comes six months after TikTok's U.S. operations were transferred to a joint venture primarily owned by American investors.
At the end of 2022, Congress passed a bipartisan-supported bill requiring federal agencies to remove TikTok from government-issued devices. The law also applied to "any subsequent applications or services developed or provided by ByteDance Limited or its affiliated entities."
However, on Thursday, the Department of Justice stated that the law no longer applies to the current version of TikTok available in the United States. In a 12-page legal opinion addressed to the President’s Counsel Assistant, the Office of Legal Counsel—responsible for providing legal advice to executive branch agencies—explained: "Congress originally prohibited only those versions of TikTok with the same problematic ownership characteristics."
Whether or not to allow the use of TikTok remains at the discretion of individual federal agencies; agencies may still independently decide to prohibit downloading TikTok on government devices "for reasons related to employee management, such as enhancing employee productivity."
The opinion letter further emphasized: "We understand that you have since instructed employees within executive branch agencies to be allowed to download TikTok on their official devices, but this must be decided on a case-by-case basis by each agency and must comply with all applicable workplace policies."
The White House has referred requests for comment on this matter back to the Department of Justice.
Source: rfi
Original: toutiao.com/article/1871075196344329/
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