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Congress is about to ban TikTok from U.S. government phones

A ban on Chinese-owned TikTok for government devices is in a new spending bill. It will not affect most of the 100 million U.S. users of the app, but it is a major anti-TikTok escalation by the U.S.

Having TikTok on a device issued by the federal government is about to become illegal under a sprawling spending bill for the upcoming fiscal year released by lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday. It is expected to become law in the coming days to avert a partial government shutdown.

While the Chinese-owned app is already not allowed on many federal government devices, the measure in the new spending bill expands the prohibition. The ban will likely result in a hit to TikTok's reputation at a time when the Biden administration is still attempting to complete a national security review of the popular app.

TikTok is used by more than 100 million monthly active users in the

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