Biden Signs Bill Mandating TikTok's Removal from Phones of Gov't Employees Under 'Electoral Count Act' Reformation
Per CBS News
President Biden signed a government spending bill worth $1.7 trillion with a segment including the mandated removal of TikTok from the phones of government employees. The bill also included additional funding to aid Ukraine.
The President of the United States just signed into effect a $1.7 trillion spending bill that includes various advancements in different fields. To sum everything up, here are the different aspects highlighted in the bill:
- Provide Ukraine with needed resources
- Have the Electoral Count Act reformed
- Add to the Violence Against Women Act funding at the highest level
- Advance cancer and other diseases research
- Improve the security of communities
- Make mental health care a priority
- Deliver for US veterans
- Give the Indian country access to high-quality healthcare
- Provide pregnant women with stronger worker protections
To specify, the Electoral Count Act requires that TikTok be removed from government phones, among other projects. GOP Sen. Josh Hawley gave a strong statement about the popular app and how it should be banned, per another article by CBS News.
Hawley: "TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It's a major security risk to the United States, and until it is forced to sever ties with China completely, it has no place on government devices,"
President Biden is not the first person to seek to ban TikTok. In fact, the current President actually replaced a previous order by former President Donald Trump, who sought to ban TikTok, citing security risks, per NYT.
The initial executive order wanted to outright ban TikTok and WeChat because of the reported security risk it poses for the data of Americans. The Biden administration said that they still wanted to evaluate the national security risks that the app posed.
The Trump administration was able to go as far as receiving a grant from a judge for an injunction of the order which would have given TikTok until November. Now, with Biden's Electoral Count Act, the app is now banned from government phones.
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