The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says federal employees can again download TikTok on government-issued phones and devices. Multiple outlets report that the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel issues a memo reversing an earlier ban that was put in place under a 2022 law restricting TikTok from federal technology due to national security concerns.
According to the reports, the DOJ’s conclusion depends on changes to TikTok’s U.S. ownership and data handling. Fox News and other sources describe a divestiture in which ByteDance transfers TikTok’s U.S. operations and user data to a joint venture that is majority American-owned. After this restructuring, DOJ determines the app no longer falls under the scope of the 2022 law used to restrict it.
The outlets characterize the development as the end of a yearslong prohibition for federal workers, with the DOJ signaling that the revised ownership structure and associated data transfer arrangements remove the legal basis for the earlier restriction. The details of device access rollout are not extensively covered in the provided summaries, but the DOJ’s guidance is presented as the key trigger for allowing downloads again.
