TechCrunch43%
Federal employees can download TikTok on their work phones again 46%
By Anthony Ha54%
7/18/2026, 3:54:24 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Unattributed Quote, Appeal to Authority, and Negativity Bias, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 53.4% saturation with 94 hits. Analysis detected 418 faulty-reasoning hits from 176 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.5% and a BS Rank of 46% (9,972 of 18,332 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 54.40% of the article peer group.
The Department of Justice says that federal employees can now download TikTok on their government devices, according to Reuters.
A 2022 law banned federal employees from using the short-form video app on those devices, but the DOJ reportedly says the law no longer applies, thanks to a deal transferring ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a joint venture backed by Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.
(Oracle serves as the security partner for the new joint venture, while previous owner ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake.)
The DOJ memo reportedly says President Donald Trump has cleared “employees of Executive Branch agencies” to “download TikTok onto their official devices, subject to the agency’s discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies.”
Following the ban focused on government employees and devices, the app was banned more broadly across the United States.
But just as the law took effect early last year, the app only went down briefly before Trump repeatedly delayed the move and urged service providers to restore access.
Analysis
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