Senate bill would ban TikTok on federal employees' work phones

Two Republican senators offered legislation Thursday that would ban federal employees from using the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on government-issued work phones, building on similar prohibitions at the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and Transportation Security Administration.

Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rick Scott of Florida, who introduced the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, raised alarm about the national security risks posed by the app's ties to China. TikTok's owner, ByteDance, "is required by law to share user data with Beijing," Hawley, an outspoken tech critic and China hawk, said. "As many of our federal agencies have already recognized, TikTok is a major security risk to the United States, and it has no place on government devices."

Scott added that "the use of apps like TikTok by federal employees on government devices is a risk to our networks and a threat to our national security."