Wisconsin and North Carolina are the latest states to ban TikTok from government devices due to security concerns.
Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced an executive order Thursday that banned TikTok and other cybersecurity threats from government-owned devices. He made the decision after consulting with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other intelligence officials about banning TikTok, Evers said Thursday.
BREAKING: I just signed an executive order banning TikTok and other potential cybersecurity-threatening technologies on state-issued devices. Defending our state’s technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and protecting digital privacy will continue to be a top priority. pic.twitter.com/JR6tM4iLyI
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) January 12, 2023
Evers’ order instructs the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Division of Enterprise Technology to continue searching for other foreign companies that pose a threat to the state’s security.
“In the digital age, defending our state’s technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and protecting digital privacy have to be a top priority for us as a state,” Evers said in a press release. (RELATED: TikTok’s Security Protocols Won’t Prevent China From Spying On American Users, Analysts Warn)
“New and evolving technologies will continue to present risks to privacy, safety, and security, and this order ensures we will continue to be vigilant in monitoring these technologies while trusting the advice of these experts on evolving cybersecurity issues facing our state,” Evers added.
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a similar executive order Thursday, paving the way for TikTok to be banned from state devices. Cooper instructed the North Carolina Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) to create a policy to ban TikTok, WeChat, and other applications that could pose a security risk.
“It’s important for us to protect state information technology from foreign countries that have actively participated in cyberattacks against the United States,” Cooper said in a press release. “Protecting North Carolina from cyber threats is vital to ensuring the safety, security, privacy, and success of our state and its people,” Cooper added.
TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance promoted pro-Chinese Communist Party messaging on its defunct news app, and 300 employees of TikTok and ByteDance used to work for Chinese state media, Forbes reported.
The platform is also undergoing a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) within the Treasury Department. At the same time, TikTok is negotiating a deal with the Biden administration that would not alter its ownership structure and enable the platform to continue operating in the U.S, according to the New York Times.
As part of the negotiations, TikTok promised to create a U.S. data protection subsidiary overseen by Oracle Inc. and national security officials, Reuters reported. TikTok’s deal has been delayed by national security officials’ ongoing concerns about the company’s trustworthiness and potent recommendation algorithm, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We’re disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok. TikTok is loved by millions of Americans, and it is unfortunate that the many state agencies, offices, universities, student groups, and sports teams in those states will no longer be able to use TikTok to build communities and share information,” a TikTok spokesperson told the Daily Caller.
“We are continuing to work with the federal government to finalize a solution that will meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at the federal and state level,” the spokesperson continued. “These plans have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies — plans that we are well underway in implementing — to further secure our platform in the United States, and we will continue to brief lawmakers on them.”
Over a dozen states have banned TikTok from state-owned devices due to security concerns, and Congress recently passed legislation banning TikTok from federal government devices.