The U.S. government is halting some of its advertising campaigns on TikTok amid further ban scrutiny.
According to the report, an interim rule by the Department of Defense, NASA, and the General Services Administration was established last week. This new rule would prohibit contracts that require the use of TikTok. The rule says this extends to situations “where social media advertising services might be part of the procurement.”
There’s no indication when the interim rule will be lifted, but it is an effective pause on government spending on the platform. It’s also just one of the many moves the U.S. government has taken to isolate itself from TikTok, a Beijing-owned social media platform under heavy scrutiny for its highly controversial data collection efforts and admitted spying on U.S. citizens for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The U.S. Navy was the first branch of the military to ban TikTok on government-owned devices, with the Army joining in soon after.
Montana became the first state in the United States to ban the app for its citizens. The ban would also impose a fine on Google and Apple to the tune of $10,000 a day for each day TikTok is accessible to Montanans when the law goes into effect in 2024. In response to that action, TikTok sued the state on violation of First Amendment grounds. The ban for Montana is mostly symbolic, anyone who wants to download TikTok onto their device inside of Montana can use a VPN and set it to any point inside the United States to get around the ban.
It appears as though the Biden administration may be preparing to take a hardline stance against TikTok. FBI Director Christopher Wray has repeatedly warned about the app’s data collection techniques and the possibility for the algorithm to be influenced by the CCP. Have you ever watched a few TikTok videos and wondered why such colorful language is used? It’s to avoid censorship on the platform for talking about suicide (unalive on TikTok) or LGBT issues (Leg Booty on TikTok).
