TikTok is a is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance that hosts user-submitted videos ranging from three seconds to 60 minutes. TikTok can be accessed via smartphone app and is estimated to have 170 million active U.S. users and 1.04 billion worldwide. Concerns about TikTok’s connections to China have led governments worldwide to ban the app on official devices including the U.S. government. The U.S. already bans the application on federal and public sector employees’ phones and on state employees’ phones in 32 of 50 states.
The FAR TikTok Interim Rule
On June 2, 2023, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) issued an interim rule extending to federal contractors the existing government prohibition on having or using any device that also has any social networking service provided by ByteDance installed. The prohibition broadly applies to what is being called a ByteDance Covered Application which, for the moment, only includes TikTok but would include any re-naming of TikTok or any follow-on or similar technology regardless of the company that owns it.
- Contracting officers shall include the clause at FAR 52.204-27, Prohibition on a ByteDance Covered Application—
- In solicitations issued on or after June 2, 2023; and
- In solicitations issued before the effective date, provided award of the resulting contract(s) occurs on or after the effective date. The amendment of the solicitation must be accomplished by July 3, 2023.
- For existing indefinite-delivery contracts only, contracting officers shall modify them, in accordance with FAR 1.108(d)(3), to include the FAR clause at 52.204-27, Prohibition on a ByteDance Covered Application, by July 3, 2023, to apply to future orders
- Source: Federal Register
If exercising an option or modifying an existing contract or task or delivery order to extend the period of performance, contracting officers are directed to include the clause. When exercising an option, agencies are directed to consider modifying the existing contract to add the clause in a sufficient amount of time before exercising the option and to provide contractors with adequate time to comply with the clause.
The FAR rule and corresponding contract clause prohibit contractors from having or using a ByteDance Covered Application including TikTok on any information technology owned or managed by the government, or on any information technology used or provided by the contractor under a contract, including equipment provided by the contractor’s employees. The ban applies to devices used in the performance of a government contract regardless of whether the government, the contractor, or the contractor’s employee (for example, employee-owned devices that are part of an employer bring your own device (BYOD) program) own the device. In contrast, an employee’s personally owned cellular phone or laptop computer that is not used in the performance of the contract is not subject to the prohibition.
What It Means for Government Contractors
All employees are required to un-install, remove and block, any ByteDance Covered Applications including TikTok from company issued or government devices. Employees who are using their own personal laptop computer in the performance of a contract, must un-install, remove and block, any ByteDance Covered Applications including TikTok from such device. Upon receipt of a company or government issued laptop computer you must block ByteDance Covered Applications including TikTok from the device. Please seek guidance from your IT support staff as needed.
Federal and State Agency Actions
The national security and privacy concerns stem from the amount of user tracking and data collection TikTok performs (as noted in the platform’s Privacy Policy) including a user’s network activity information, geolocation-related data, browsing, search history and cookies. U.S. lawmakers are concerned that ByteDance may leak U.S. user data to the Chinese government. Another concern is that China could try to exert pressure on ByteDance to censor content or push preferred content / propaganda to users which, during an election year, would have enormous repercussions. Amid national security and privacy concerns:
- In April 2024 the Biden Administration signed a bill that included language saying the platform would be banned in the U.S. in a year unless ByteDance divests from the app. It is unclear how the U.S. would prohibit citizens from using the application on their personal devices. Popular app stores (e.g., Google Play and Apple App Store) could remove the app from their platforms to prevent future downloads.
- As of March 2024, more than 30 states have already banned TikTok from state-issued devices.
- As of April 2023, more than a dozen countries have banned TikTok from government devices, according to an April report from the Associated Press.
- As of February 2023. the Biden Administration banned TikTok on devices used by federal employees.
- Congress banned the download or use of the app through any federally issued device or network in December 2022. The CAO directed all lawmakers and staffers to remove the app from their official House phones and prohibited staff members from downloading the app on House mobile devices.
- The Senate passed on 12/14/2022 the No TikTok on Government Devices Act which is awaiting review by the House. If signed into law, the Act would “require the social media video application TikTok to be removed from the information technology of federal agencies. Specifically, the bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to develop standards for executive agencies that require TikTok and any successor application from the developer to be removed from agency information technology (e.g., devices). Such standards must include exceptions for law enforcement activities, national security interests, and security researchers.”