The White House Office of Management and Budget has revoked a 2023 decision that banned the use of TikTok by federal government agencies, according to an announcement published on Monday. The revocation is based on a legal review from the Department of Justice that concluded that TikTok no longer falls into the category of a "prohibited application" under a 2022 law that banned its operation on federal systems, according to a Bloomberg report.
The decision follows an agreement completed in January to transfer the management of TikTok in the United States from its Chinese parent company ByteDance to a coalition of American companies led by Oracle and Silver Lake Management. The deal, conducted under the direction of President Donald Trump, was designed to avoid a ban on the application under a 2024 law, which was enacted due to concerns that TikTok and ByteDance might hand over American user data to Chinese authorities.
The Department of Justice's assessment stated that the current version of TikTok is operated separately from ByteDance and that its current shareholding is largely held by investors from within the United States. The Department of Justice also noted that the application has made changes to its cybersecurity systems and content filtering algorithms that were originally designed by ByteDance, with the aim of separating federal government data from the security concerns that originally triggered the ban.
The TikTok sale agreement came after a dispute lasting a full year over concerns regarding American national security related to the application's connections with China. TikTok management and Beijing authorities have denied claims by American legislators indicating that the application could use user data or that China could exploit the platform to promote certain narratives or disinformation.
