Federal employees are now permitted to download TikTok onto government devices, according to a recent memo from the Department of Justice. This decision reverses a ban that was put in place due to national security concerns.
The shift follows the finalization of a deal in January where 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). This new entity is a majority American-owned joint venture.
A 2022 law had prohibited federal workers from using TikTok on government devices. However, an opinion from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the restructuring has eliminated the risks that initially prompted the ban. The opinion stated that the American-controlled version of TikTok "poses no such risk."
According to the divestiture agreement, American and global investors collectively own 80.1% of the new joint venture, while ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake. The DOJ noted that ByteDance's minority shareholder status in the joint venture operating TikTok USDS "makes no practical difference" concerning the security assessment.
The divestiture was prompted by a bipartisan law passed by Congress in 2024, which President Joe Biden signed in April. This law mandated that ByteDance divest its U.S. operations or face a ban from U.S. app stores and internet-hosting services.
TikTok had challenged the law's constitutionality, asserting it violated users' free speech rights. However, on January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the authority to impose the sell-or-ban ultimatum to address national security concerns related to TikTok's data collection practices and its relationship with a foreign adversary.
While the law was set to take effect on January 19, 2025, its enforcement was delayed by President Donald Trump after he returned to office the following day. Trump had repeatedly delayed enforcement throughout the previous year to allow interested investors time to emerge.
Prominent investors in the new venture include Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment firm MGX. In January, the new venture announced that U.S. user data would be secured in Oracle's cloud infrastructure and that TikTok's recommendation algorithm would be retrained using U.S. user data.