In response to growing security concerns, North Carolina and Wisconsin have become the latest US states to prohibit using TikTok on state-owned devices, following at least 25 other jurisdictions that have already taken some action.
Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, raised privacy, security, and safety issues after discussing the app with the FBI and disaster management experts. With few exclusions, including criminal investigators who might be utilizing the app to follow particular people, Mr. Evers’ ruling applies to the majority of state agencies.
Additionally excluded is the University of Wisconsin System, which has 40,000 faculty and staff members on employment. Despite the exemption, a UW System representative said the institution was undertaking a review and working toward imposing limitations on the app’s use on devices in order to guard against major cybersecurity concerns.
Concerns that TikTok, a Chinese internet company owned by Bytedance, might be used to collect user information and data and give it to the Chinese Communist Party are a factor in the ban. Two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok, making it the second most popular website around the globe.
But there has long been a bipartisan worry in Washington that the Chinese government may try to obtain American user data or spread false information by using its legal and regulatory authority. News allegations from last year that a Chinese team had inappropriately accessed the data of American TikTok users, namely two journalists, as part of a clandestine surveillance campaign to find the source of press leaks, fanned fears. Additionally, there are worries that the corporation is violating strict European privacy laws by sending vast amounts of customer data to China.
Some states, including Texas and Ohio, cited China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which obliges businesses with regional headquarters to cooperate with law enforcement by sharing user data with them.
Other Chinese-owned platforms and apps including Weibo, WeChat, Alibaba, and Huawei Technologies are also blocked in several jurisdictions. Chris Wray, the director of the FBI, issued a caution about the possibility of espionage using TikTok in December. He noted that China can “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his government wanted to ban business with TikTok’s owner, compel the company to sell over its U.S. assets, and ban TikTok from app stores.
Courts had previously thwarted Mr. Trump’s attempts to outlaw TikTok. President Joe Biden reversed Mr. Trump’s orders after assuming office but requested a thorough investigation of the matter.
The sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets was postponed. In December 2022, President Joe Biden signed a bill banning federal employees from using the TikTok app on government devices due to rising worries that the software would be used to spy on American users. As people became more aware of security risks, a number of jurisdictions started banning the app.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, issued an order to the Florida Department of Financial Services in August 2020 prohibiting TikTok use on department-owned devices.
In August 2020, Nebraska was the second state to declare a ban on TikTok use on state-owned devices.
I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.