The Justice Division decided this week a federal legislation banning TikTok from authorities units now not applies to the social video app.
The written opinion from the Justice Division’s Workplace of Authorized Counsel — an workplace that gives authorized recommendation to the chief department — was issued six months after TikTok’s U.S.-based operations had been shifted to a brand new three way partnership principally made up of American buyers. The social community’s prior possession by Beijing-based ByteDance, which nonetheless holds a minority stake, had drawn years of nationwide safety issues and brought on TikTok to face a looming nationwide ban.
In late 2022, Congress handed bipartisan laws that required govt department businesses to take away TikTok from federal units. It additionally lined “any successor software or service developed or offered by ByteDance Restricted or an entity owned by ByteDance Restricted.”
However on Thursday, the Justice Division argued that legislation now not applies to the model of TikTok at present out there within the U.S. In a 12-page opinion addressed to the deputy counsel to the president, the Workplace of Authorized Counsel mentioned that “Congress banned solely the model of TikTok that shares the identical problematic possession options.”
It is nonetheless as much as particular person federal businesses to determine whether or not to permit TikTok, and businesses can nonetheless “independently determine to ban the downloading of TikTok to authorities units for workforce administration causes, resembling selling worker productiveness.”
The opinion notes at one level: “We perceive you’ve since instructed that workers of Government Department businesses could obtain TikTok onto their official units, topic to the company’s discretion and in keeping with all relevant office insurance policies.”
The White Home referred a request for remark to the Justice Division.
CBS Information has reached out to TikTok for remark.
The ban on downloading TikTok to government-owned units was pushed by fears that knowledge from a ByteDance-owned social media app may find yourself within the arms of the Chinese language authorities — a fear TikTok had lengthy insisted was unwarranted.
In 2024, Congress went additional, passing laws that may successfully ban TikTok from america altogether until ByteDance divested from the app’s U.S. operations by January 2025. The legislation took impact a day earlier than President Trump’s inauguration.
Nevertheless, Mr. Trump — who got here out towards banning TikTok regardless of supporting a ban in his first time period — directed the Justice Division to not implement the ban, saying he was engaged on a deal to shift possession.
A deal that emerged final yr and was finalized in January 2026 noticed a gaggle of principally U.S.-based buyers take a majority stake within the model of TikTok out there to People. ByteDance retained 19.9% of the enterprise, just below the legislation’s 20% cap.
One of many new buyers is Oracle, a tech firm chaired by Larry Ellison. His son David Ellison is CEO of Paramount, a Skydance company, which is the mother or father firm of CBS Information.
The brand new three way partnership — generally known as TikTok U.S. Knowledge Safety, or TikTok USDS — promised intense cybersecurity controls. It mentioned it might retrain the social media platform’s advice algorithm utilizing knowledge from American customers, and Oracle would “evaluate and validate supply code on an ongoing foundation.”
The deal drew some scrutiny from lawmakers who pressed for proof that it might deal with the nationwide safety issues that led Congress to move a ban. Two buyers in competing tech companies Alphabet and Meta additionally sued the federal authorities, arguing the deal didn’t adjust to the legislation. The federal authorities has requested for the case to be dismissed. It’s nonetheless pending.
