WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a written opinion stating that a federal law banning TikTok from government devices no longer applies to the social video app. The Office of Counsel stated that “Congress banned only the version of TikTok that shares the same problematic ownership features.”

Office of Counsel opinion is 12 pages long and was addressed to the deputy counsel to the president. Office of Counsel opinion notes: “We understand you have since instructed that employees of Executive Branch agencies may download TikTok onto their official devices, subject to the agency's discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies.”

Office of Counsel opinion states that individual federal agencies can “independently decide to ban the downloading of TikTok to government devices for workforce management reasons, such as promoting employee productivity.” The Justice Department opinion was issued six months after TikTok's U.S.-based operations were shifted to a new joint venture mostly made up of American investors.

In late 2022, Congress passed legislation requiring executive branch agencies to remove TikTok from federal devices. The 2022 legislation covered any successor application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Limited or an entity owned by ByteDance Limited. In 2024, Congress passed legislation that would effectively ban TikTok from the United States unless ByteDance divested from the app's U.S. operations by January 2025.

The 2024 law took effect a day before President Trump's inauguration. A deal finalized in January 2026 saw a group of mostly U.S.-based investors take a majority stake in the version of TikTok available to Americans. ByteDance retained a minority stake in the joint venture, under the threshold specified by the law.

The new joint venture is known as TikTok U.S. Data Security, or TikTok USDS. Oracle is one of the new investors in the joint venture. Silver Lake is an investor in the joint venture. MGX is an investor in the joint venture.

The joint venture promised intense cybersecurity controls. The joint venture said it would retrain the social media platform's recommendation algorithm using data from American users. Oracle will review and validate source code on an ongoing basis.

The opinion clarifies the legal status of TikTok for federal employees following a major restructuring of the app's ownership. The shift to a U.S.-led joint venture addressed the specific ownership concerns that prompted the initial congressional bans. Federal agencies now have the discretion to allow the app on official devices while maintaining their own workplace policies.