The governors of Wisconsin and North Carolina on Thursday signed executive orders banning TikTok on government devices over cybersecurity concerns, joining other U.S. states and the federal government in banning use of the popular video app.
Next to the ban in Chinese ownership tick tock Of state devices, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said he bans vendors, products and services from other Chinese companies, including Huawei Technologies, Tencent Holdings – the owner of WeChat, ZTE Corp, as well as based in Russia Kaspersky Laboratory.
“In the digital age, defending our state’s technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and protecting digital privacy must be our top priorities as a state,” Evers said.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order directing officials to develop a policy within 14 days banning the use of TikTok, WeChat and “potentially other applications” that pose cybersecurity risks on government devices.
More than 20 other states have also banned TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDancefrom state devices like Ohio, New Jersey and Arkansas earlier this week.
TikTok said it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political train to enact policies that do nothing to improve cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok.”
The Democratic governors of Wisconsin and North Carolina have largely joined Republican governors in charging the ban on TikTok from state devices.
Calls to ban TikTok from government devices gained momentum after US FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November it posed national security risks.
Wray pointed out the threat that the Chinese government could use the app to influence users or control their devices.
For three years, TikTok – which has more than 100 million users – has been trying to reassure Washington that the personal information of US citizens cannot be accessed and its content cannot be tampered with by the Chinese Communist Party or any other entity under Beijing’s influence .
Last month, US President Joe Biden signed government funding legislation that would ban federal employees from using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices.
The law gives the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 60 days “to develop standards and guidelines for law enforcement agencies requiring the removal of TikTok from federal devices.” OMB declined to comment Thursday.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
