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According to foreign media reports on July 31, according to a memo sent to staff by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 30, all applications of TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance will be banned from installation on the devices of all House staff in two weeks.

ByteDance's flagship product TikTok has been banned from use on official US government devices since 2023. Now, the policy will be extended to ByteDance's other products, including Lemon8, Capcut, Lark, and Hypic.

Starting August 15, the Congressional Cybersecurity Office will follow up with staff members and ask them to delete any ByteDance apps still on official devices.

The memo explains: ByteDance products will be blocked and removed from devices managed by the House, starting with mobile devices. If you have a ByteDance app installed on a mobile device managed by the House, we will contact you to remove it.

The move comes after the Senate approved a House measure in April that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States or the app would be banned from Google and Apple's app stores. President Biden signed the measure into law, officially starting a year for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban. ByteDance has vowed to fight the bill in court.

More than a month ago, TikTok formally filed for an injunction to block the forced sale deadline. But the Justice Department fought back against the request and issued a 115-page response refuting ByteDance's arguments.

ByteDance went on to argue that the "U.S. Constitution is on our side" and that a ban would "suppress the voices of 170 million Americans in violation of the First Amendment." These arguments seemed designed in large part to anger TikTok users and get them to flock to ByteDance, as the U.S. Department of Justice quickly refuted them.

Oral arguments on the potential ban are set for September 16.