14 DAY TRIAL // TikTok is facing more and more legal issues in the United States, this time as the House of Representatives issued a memo to staff to request everybody to delete the application from their mobile devices.
Signed by Catherine L. Szpindor, the chief administrative officer of the House, the memo was obtained by NBC, and it tells staff that TikTok not only must be removed immediately but also blocked from being installed in the future.
The reason is not difficult to figure out.
TiKTok is described as a Chinese application that poses a high security risk to users “due to a number of security risks,” as the memo reportedly reads.
“House staff are NOT allowed to download the TikTok app on any House mobile devices,” the memo said. “If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it.”
TikTok, which has repeatedly stated that the data of U.S. users isn’t stored on Chinese servers, has already confirmed that it’s working with the authorities in the country on addressing all complaints.
“[We’re 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, and we will continue to brief lawmakers on them.,” a company spokesperson said earlier this month.
In a statement for the WSJ, a TikTok spokeswoman says the decision to ban the application on House-managed phones doesn’t necessarily impact its userbase in the United States. This is because few such devices actually run TikTok, so what’s more concerning is the message that such a decision sends to the rest of the users in the country.