Pelosi backs adding government device ban of TikTok to funding bill

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports adding legislation to ban TikTok on government devices to a federal funding bill, a spokesperson confirmed Friday. 

Support from the Speaker brings the effort, which gained unanimous support in a separate vote in the Senate, closer to being adopted in the omnibus bill next week. 

The Speaker’s support for the effort to keep the Chinese-owned social media app off government devices was first reported by Punchbowl News. 

Before heading to President Biden’s desk for a signature, the provision would have to be adopted in a Senate version of a government funding bill. 

The Senate unanimously voted to approve Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” on Wednesday, signaling that there would be support in the upper chamber. The bill would prohibit certain individuals from downloading or using the video-sharing app TikTok on “any device issued by the United States or a government corporation.”

The growing momentum to pass a federal ban follows similar action from more than half a dozen GOP-led states, instituting TikTok bans on state-government owned devices. 

Supporters of such efforts have said that TikTok, owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, poses security risks. 

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement that “politicians with national security concerns should encourage the Administration to conclude its national security review of TikTok.”

“The agreement under review will meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at both the federal and state level. These plans have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies—plans that we are well underway in implementing—to further secure our platform in the United States, and we will continue to brief lawmakers on them,” Oberwetter added.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to directly comment on the White House’s view of the legislation to ban TikTok on government issued devices. 

“We’re going to let Congress move forward with their processes on this,” she said.