The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that a restructured TikTok joint venture no longer falls under a 2022 law banning the app from federal technology
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The Justice Department concluded that federal employees may use TikTok on their government-issued devices, lifting a ban that had been in place since 2022. The Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued the opinion on July 16, finding that a restructured TikTok joint venture no longer falls within the scope of the No TikTok on Government Devices Act.
The opinion, signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, determined that the version of TikTok now operated by the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture is not "developed or provided" by ByteDance Limited or any entity ByteDance controls. The joint venture is majority-owned by American investors — including Silver Lake, Oracle $ORCL, and MGX — and governed by a majority-American board of directors. ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake but lacks voting power to alter the venture's security protocols, the opinion said.
The OLC memo noted that its prior advice to the Deputy Counsel to the President, delivered on March 10, 2026, had already cleared the way for executive branch employees to download TikTok onto official devices, subject to each agency's discretion. The July 16 opinion memorialized that earlier guidance.
Central to the legal analysis was the meaning of "ownership" under the 2022 law. The OLC concluded that the Government Ban targeted only applications developed or provided by entities in which ByteDance holds a controlling stake — not a minority one. The opinion drew on statutory context, corporate law principles, and the later-enacted Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which defines foreign adversary control as requiring at least a 20% ownership stake.
The OLC also pointed to security arrangements the joint venture has put in place. User data is stored within Oracle's U.S. cloud environment, external ByteDance personnel are barred from accessing that data, and the venture employs third-party cybersecurity auditors to review and certify its privacy program and identify vulnerabilities. The joint venture is also retraining TikTok's content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data, replacing the version originally developed by ByteDance.
The opinion does not compel agencies to allow TikTok on government devices — it grants them discretion to do so. Agencies may still independently prohibit the app, including for workforce management reasons.
The joint venture was established in January 2026, one day before an impending ban would have taken effect. Senator Ed Markey had written to TikTok U.S. and Oracle raising concerns that the arrangement failed to fully sever ties between U.S. operations and ByteDance, and demanding documentation of the algorithm licensing and retraining process.
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