Cybersecurity Policy Report, DoJ Supports Allowing TikTok Back Onto U.S. Government Devices, (Jul 20, 2026)

By Tom Leithauser

Federal agencies no longer have to prohibit their personnel from using TikTok on agency devices and networks because TikTok’s restructuring has undermined the rationale for the government ban, according to the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).

OLC issued an opinion on Friday at the request of the White House, which wanted to know whether the No TikTok on Government Devices Act of 2022 was still applicable. The act required personnel at executive branch agencies to delete the TikTok app from official devices to protect government data from Chinese government surveillance (CPR, Feb. 28, 2023).

But the Chinese government’s control over TikTok was eliminated when TikTok’s owner, ByteDance Ltd., reduced its ownership in the video-sharing app to 19.9% as part of a restructuring that gave U.S. investors a controlling interest in TikTok, OLC said.

The restructuring was required by a separate law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024, which forced TikTok to cut its ties to the Chinese government to keep its U.S. operations in business (CPR, Jan. 23).

The resulting business, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, “is wholly controlled by American interests as a functional as well as a formal matter—and thus exhibits none of the concerning security features that initially motivated the Government Ban” enacted by the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, OLC said.

The OLC based its opinion on an attestation from TikTok USDS’s general counsel, who reported that TikTok’s U.S. user data was protected by Oracle Corp. in a “secure U.S. cloud environment” and that independent cybersecurity experts were employed to “audit and certify” TikTok USDS’s privacy and cybersecurity program.

“The text, context, and purpose of the No TikTok on Government Devices Act confirm that it is best read as prohibiting only applications developed or provided by entities in which ByteDance has a controlling ownership stake,” OLC said.

“The facts provided to you by TikTok USDS demonstrate that ByteDance Limited does not have such a problematic stake: ByteDance Limited is a minority shareholder in the joint venture and lacks voting power to alter the robust security protocols that the joint venture has established for TikTok USDS,” the office told the White House deputy counsel who requested the opinion.

“Thus, we conclude that TikTok USDS is not banned from federal government devices by the No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” OLC said. “Of course, this conclusion only confers on agencies the discretion to permit employees to use TikTok USDS on their government devices; there is no mandate that agencies exercise that discretion in any particular way in any or all cases.”

MainStory: TopStory FederalLegislation DataSecurity DataPrivacy