Effective for All Ohio State University Federal Contracts
On June 2, 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the General Services Administration (GSA) issued an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the Federal Government’s No TikTok on Government Devices Act (TikTok Ban). The interim rule requires a new contract clause (FAR 52.204-27) be added to all federal contracts that meet the following criteria:
- Contract solicitations issued on or after June 2, 2023
- Contracts awarded before June 2, 2023, but performance on which begins after June 2
- Contracts that are amended or modified after June 2, 2023
TikTok is a software application owned and operated by ByteDance Limited (ByteDance). The interim rule prohibits prime contractors and subcontractors at all tiers from having or using social networking services or applications provided by ByteDance Limited, which includes TikTok, on information technology used in the performance of the government contract.
All faculty, staff and students participating on a federal contract will need to comply with the TikTok Ban, once the FAR 52.204-27 clause is added to the contract.
Scope
FAR clauses are only applicable to federal contracts. Federal grants and federal cooperative agreements are not currently impacted by this amendment to the FAR.
| Terms and Conditions | |
|---|---|
| Federal Grants | Governed by the terms of the grant agreement. |
| Federal Cooperative Agreement | Governed by the terms of the cooperative agreement. |
| Federal Contracts | Governed by Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). |
Federal Contracts Started After June 2, 2023
Federal contracts that were issued or whose performance started after June 2, 2023, under this rule should have the new FAR 52.204-27 clause in the contract. All faculty, staff and students working on the contract, paid from the contract or who have access to contract data must comply with the TikTok ban at this time.
Federal Contracts Started Prior to June 2, 2023
Federal contracts whose performance started before June 2, 2023, do not have the FAR 52.204-27 clause. The new rule requires the FAR 52.204-27 clause to be added by the contracting officer at the next time the contract is amended or modified. Eventually, all federal contracts will be required to comply with the TikTok Ban. All faculty, staff and students working on the contract, paid from the contract or who have access to contract data are strongly encouraged to comply now. If principal investigators would like to delay compliance until the FAR 52.204-27 clause is added to their contract, they should coordinate with their Sponsored Program Officer to determine when the clause is added to their contract.
Computer Equipment in Scope for the TikTok Ban
The interim rule prohibits government contractors (and subcontractors) from having or using the TikTok application (or any successor application or service provided by ByteDanceLimited) on:
- Any information technology (IT) owned or managed by the government, or on
- Any IT used in performance of a government contract, whether the IT is owned by the contractor or by a contractor employee.
The definition of information technology (IT) for the purpose of the federal government’s No TikTok on Government Devices is defined in 40 U.S.C. 11101(6).
“...any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment, used in the automatic acquisition, storage, analysis, evaluation, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information…”
Any computer that is used in support of the federal contract must comply with the TikTok ban, and this includes both university-owned as well as personally-owned equipment. Examples of computer equipment that would need to comply with the TikTok ban include, but are not limited to:
- University computers used to store, process or transmit federal project information.
- Personal computers used to store, process, or transmit federal project information.
- Any personal or university-owned device (phone, tablet, etc.) used to store, process or transmit federal project information.
- Any personal or university-owned device used to access cloud storage, such as MS Teams or MS OneDrive, if project information is stored in that service.
- Any personal or university-owned device used to read university e-mail, as project information and coordination is most often performed through e-mail.
Additionally, you should not use other electronic accounts (Facebook, Google, etc.) for authentication to a ByteDance account or service.
Device Activity Not Considered In-Scope for this Ban
The following activities are provided as examples of device activity that would not be considered in scope for this ban:
DUO Multifactor Authentication
The TikTok ban is not considered to extend to devices used only for DUO-Multifactor authentication.
Non-ByteDance Applications that Play TikTok Videos
The TikTok ban is not considered to extend to devices used for other social media applications (X, Facebook, etc.) when feed displays a TikTok video that someone else posted.
Exceptions
The government ban does include a provision for exceptions:
"(b) This prohibition applies to the presence or use of a covered application on any information technology owned or managed by the government, or on any information technology used or provided by the contractor under a contract, including equipment provided by the contractor's employees, unless an exception is granted in accordance with OMB Memorandum M–23–13."
Exceptions will need to be submitted to the sponsor for review and approval. Principal investigators should work with the Sponsored Program Officer to write up the exception request and submit it to the primary sponsor for review.
Final Rule
This documentation will be updated with any modifications made when the Federal Government publishes the final rule, expected fall of 2023.
Additional Information
For contract related questions, please contact your Sponsored Program Officer.
For technology related questions, please contact the IT service desk:
Phone: 614-688-4357
Self Service: go.osu.edu/it
Email: servicedesk@osu.edu