The US Senate votes to ban TikTok on government-owned devices

As TikTok is working on new, and interesting features, it managed to find itself in hot waters again. The TikTok US saga continues, as the US senate voted to ban TikTok on government-owned devices.

The US Senate votes to ban TikTok on government-owned devices

The US Senate passed by voice vote a bill to bar federal employees from using TikTok. Just for context’s sake, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. The US has had reservations regarding TikTok and its data practices for quite some time now. It claims this is due to national security reasons. ByteDance, on the other hand, believes these problems are fueled by politics.

There are a couple of additional steps that need to be done, though

Do note that this decision is not yet final, though. The bill must still be approved by the US House of Representatives. Following that, it will go to the US President, Joe Biden, for final approval.

The US House of Representatives needs to pass the Senate bill before the current congressional session ends. That is expected to happen next week, so we won’t need to wait for long.

Several US states already banned TikTok on government-owned devices

A number of US states already banned TikTok on government-owned devices. That includes Texas, Maryland, South Dakota, Alabama, and Utah. The last two joined the list quite recently.

This news follows a real bombshell that popped up recently. The US lawmakers have unveiled a bill to ban TikTok in the US, in general. They have introduced a bipartisan bill in order to do so.

There are over 100 million TikTok users in the States

There are over 100 million TikTok users in the US, so quite a lot. ByteDance is trying to do everything it can to prevent the ban from going through, as it will hurt the company, of course. Not only because of the users, but creators as well.

ByteDance said that it’s in the middle of developing plans that are “well underway in implementing” to further secure TikTok in the US. So it remains to be seen if ByteDance will succeed in its attempt. This saga is far from over.