US formally bans TikTok on lawmakers’ official phones

 TikTok has been formally prohibited from being used on any device owned or operated by the United States House of Representatives.

According to the administration branch of the House, a law specifying the app's ban is about to go into effect.

According to Reuters, the House's Chief Administrative Officer stated in a memo to members and staff that TikTok posed a "high danger due to a number of security vulnerabilities" and that the software should be removed from smartphones.

The prohibition comes after the approval of a nearly $1.7 trillion USD omnibus budget measure that specifies how government funding will be distributed in the coming year.

The proposed No TikTok on Government Devices Act would require lawmakers and employees to remove the app from government devices by mid-February, was included in the 4,155-page measure.

Before the bill was passed, TikTok, which is owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd, was already partially or completely prohibited from being used on devices that belonged to the government in 19 states.

Republican legislators are worried about the app’s security vulnerabilities since it might be used to track and gather user data.

While this is going on, TikTok has been trying to allay these worries since June by sending its American data through domestic Oracle servers.