{"id":9487,"date":"2026-07-18T10:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T05:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9487"},"modified":"2026-07-18T10:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T05:48:24","slug":"doj-says-its-no-longer-illegal-to-download-tiktok-on-federal-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9487","title":{"rendered":"DOJ says it&#8217;s no longer illegal to download TikTok on federal devices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>The Justice Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/olc\/media\/1453136\/dl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">determined this week<\/a> a federal law banning TikTok from government devices no longer applies to the social video app.<\/p>\n<p>The written opinion from the Justice Department&#8217;s Office of Legal Counsel \u2014 an office that offers legal advice to the executive branch \u2014 was issued six months after TikTok&#8217;s U.S.-based operations were <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/tiktok-deal-ban-oracle\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">shifted to a new joint venture<\/a><\/span> mostly made up of American investors. The social network&#8217;s prior ownership by Beijing-based ByteDance, which still holds a minority stake, had drawn years of national security concerns and caused TikTok to face a looming nationwide ban.<\/p>\n<p>In late 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/senate-tiktok-ban-us-government-devices\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Congress passed<\/a> bipartisan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/house-bill\/2617\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legislation<\/a> that required executive branch agencies to remove TikTok from federal devices. It also covered &#8220;any successor application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Limited or an entity owned by ByteDance Limited.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But on Thursday, the Justice Department argued that law no longer applies to the version of TikTok currently available in the U.S. In a 12-page opinion addressed to the deputy counsel to the president, the Office of Legal Counsel said that &#8220;Congress banned only the version of TikTok that shares the same problematic ownership features.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s still up to individual federal agencies to decide whether to allow TikTok, and agencies can still &#8220;independently decide to ban the downloading of TikTok to government devices for workforce management reasons, such as promoting employee productivity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The opinion notes at one point: &#8220;We understand you have since instructed that employees of Executive Branch agencies may download TikTok onto their official devices, subject to the agency&#8217;s discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The White House referred a request for comment to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>CBS News has reached out to TikTok for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The ban on downloading TikTok to government-owned devices was driven by fears that data from a ByteDance-owned social media app could end up in the hands of the Chinese government \u2014 a worry TikTok had long insisted was unwarranted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Congress went further, <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/supreme-court-tiktok-ban-ruling\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">passing legislation<\/a><\/span> that would effectively ban TikTok from the United States altogether unless ByteDance divested from the app&#8217;s U.S. operations by January 2025. The law took effect a day before President Trump&#8217;s inauguration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, Mr. Trump \u2014 who came out against banning TikTok despite supporting a ban in his first term \u2014 directed the Justice Department not to enforce the ban, saying he was working on a deal to shift ownership.<\/p>\n<p>A deal that emerged last year and was finalized in January 2026 saw a group of mostly U.S.-based investors take a majority stake in the version of TikTok available to Americans. ByteDance retained 19.9% of the venture, just under the law&#8217;s 20% cap.<\/p>\n<p>One of the new investors is Oracle, a tech company chaired by Larry Ellison. His son David Ellison is CEO of Paramount, a Skydance corporation, which is the parent company of CBS News.<\/p>\n<p>The new joint venture \u2014 known as TikTok U.S. Data Security, or TikTok USDS \u2014 promised intense cybersecurity controls. It said it would retrain the social media platform&#8217;s recommendation algorithm using data from American users, and Oracle would &#8220;review and validate source code on an ongoing basis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/democratic-senator-wants-tiktok-us-jv-oracle-answer-questions-platform-2026-05-29\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drew some scrutiny<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/chinaselectcommittee.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/moolenaar-questions-need-to-be-answered-on-tiktok-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from lawmakers<\/a> who pressed for evidence that it would address the national security concerns that led Congress to pass a ban. Two investors in competing tech firms Alphabet and Meta also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/tiktok-ban-law-lawsuit-trump-administration\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">sued the federal government<\/a>, arguing the deal did not comply with the law. The federal government has <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cadc.42917\/gov.uscourts.cadc.42917.01208852472.0_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asked for the case to be dismissed<\/a>. It is still pending.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Justice Department determined this week a federal law banning TikTok from government devices no longer applies to the social video app. The written opinion from the Justice Department&#8217;s Office of Legal Counsel \u2014 an office that offers legal advice to the executive branch \u2014 was issued six months after TikTok&#8217;s U.S.-based operations were shifted&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/01\/27\/27c18e05-3878-45c7-90e4-26f11533d220\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/ae28058e795289b7b7a2756c96665f51\/cbsn-fusion-tiktok-settles-lawsuit-ahead-of-landmark-social-media-addiction-case-thumbnail.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}