The US lifted the ban on TikTok on the devices of government employees

According to a report on the “Politico” news website, the change comes after the Office of the Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice determined last July that the ban does not apply to the new American version of TikTok. This version was created last January by a joint venture that includes the technology giant “Oracle” and the artificial intelligence company MGX, based in Abu Dhabi.

According to Politico, the original ban was enshrined in law in 2022, when Congress required the Office of Management and Budget to formulate standards for enforcing the app ban on government devices. Now, following the July legal opinion, leading federal agencies including the Treasury Department, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Health and Human Services have already launched official TikTok accounts, with the White House itself creating an account on the platform last year.

However, the battle for the feed is not yet completely over. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have their own separate bans on the use of TikTok on the devices of members of Congress, and several states across the U.S., including Texas and Virginia, have implemented similar bans on local government devices in recent years. The offices of the Senate Custodian and the House Chief Business Officer have not yet responded to a question about whether they now intend to lift the bans in Congress as well, but in the meantime, government officials can go back to scrolling. No problem.