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Federal employees can now download TikTok onto their government devices after a yearslong ban, according to a memo from the Department of Justice.
This reversal comes after ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, transferred control of the app’s U.S. user data and operations to TikTok U.S. Data Security (TikTok USDS), a majority American-owned joint venture. The deal was finalized in January.
A 2022 law banned federal workers from having TikTok on government devices due to national security concerns, but an opinion from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel said the restructuring eliminated the risks that prompted the ban.
The opinion, addressed to the deputy counsel to President Donald Trump, said the American-controlled version of TikTok “poses no such risk.”
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“We understand you have since instructed that employees of Executive Branch agencies may download TikTok onto their official devices, subject to the agency’s discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies,” the opinion said.
American and global investors own 80.1% of the new joint venture, while ByteDance owns 19.9%, according to the divestiture agreement.
“The fact that ByteDance Limited remains a minority shareholder in the joint venture operating TikTok USDS makes no practical difference,” the DOJ said in the opinion.
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ByteDance’s divestiture from TikTok was prompted by a 2024 law that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April of that year, required ByteDance to divest control of TikTok’s U.S. operations or risk having the app barred from U.S. app stores and internet-hosting services.
TikTok attempted to challenge the constitutionality of the law, arguing that it violated the free speech rights of its tens of millions of users.
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On Jan. 17, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the right to impose a sell-or-ban ultimatum to address the “well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
The law was supposed to take effect on Jan. 19, 2025, but Trump delayed its enforcement after returning to office the following day.
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Trump repeatedly delayed enforcement of the law last year to allow enough time for investors to express interest in taking over TikTok, which is used by around 200 million Americans.
Oracle, Silver Lake and Emirati investment firm MGX emerged as the most prominent investors. The new venture said in January that U.S. user data would be protected in Oracle’s secure cloud and that TikTok’s recommendation algorithm would be retrained using U.S. user data.
Reuters contributed to this report.
