App must also be deleted from private cell phones – US airlines are now banning employees from Tiktok – but continue to post themselves

Tiktok is now a fixture on social media. The platform, on which short clips are preferably posted, is used by around a billion people worldwide. It was founded in 2016 in China by the company Byte Dance. At that time it was still called Douyin – that’s the name of the app there to this day.

But in the West, the app has long been criticized for espionage and censorship allegations. The Chinese government uses them to get information, they say. In December 2022, the US government therefore legally prohibited the installation of Tiktok on government smartphones.

Delta Airlines now bans employees from Tiktok

At the end of February, the White House ordered in the so-called “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” to delete the app from all service devices of the federal authorities. In the US state of Montana, Tiktok will be banned for everyone from next year. The platform will no longer be available in India by mid-2020.

But not only the government bans Tiktok employees. It is also an issue in aviation. Delta Airlines informed its employees last Friday (June 30) that they must delete Tiktok from their work devices.

App must also be deleted from private mobile phone

Not only that, the app must also be deleted from personal cell phones if employees use it to access Delta systems such as email, scheduling, employee intranet and other systems. As blog The Points Guy reports, Delta employees have until July 7 to delete Tiktok from their devices.

Delta isn’t the first airline to ask employees to uninstall the app. Southwest Airlines had previously introduced a similar ban. The low-cost airline informed its employees in a memo on June 28 that Tiktok would no longer be accessible via the Southwest network. Unlike Delta Air Lines, the ban only applies to service devices. Employees can continue to use Tiktok on their private devices. Many airlines have guidelines on the use of social media platforms.

Airlines themselves continue to post

The background is the US government ban from February, because both airlines have contracts with various government agencies for the transport of federal employees. Southwest says that as a federal contractor, you are required to follow US government guidelines.

But that doesn’t stop the airlines from posting on the platform themselves. Southwest plans to continue running their Tiktok business profile to share stories and engage with customers. Delta Air Lines Airlines has 518,000 Tiktok followers and last posted on June 18th.

By Benjamin Reclies