South Dakota bans the use of TikTok on government devices. The start of a more global trend?
Christy Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has signed an executive order banning government employees, agencies and contractors from downloading, installing and using TikTok on government devices. In a statement, Christy Noem says she took this action because of the growing security threats that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using the social app to collect data from American users and use it to manipulate them. The decree has already entered into force. It also prevents government employees from visiting the TikTok website in a browser.
South Dakota bans TikTok on government devices
“South Dakota will not take part in data collection operations from countries that hate us,” Christy Noem said. “The Chinese Communist Party is using the data it collects from TikTok to manipulate the American people and is collecting data from devices that access the platform.”
U.S. government officials have been concerned about TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, for several years because the Chinese government allegedly uses the app to collect data. In 2020, Donald Trump, then President, tried to block TikTok and WeChat in the US. It didn’t work, but nearly all of the US military banned the app from their devices, calling TikTok a “cyber security threat.”That same year, several Republican senators introduced a bill to ban government employees from using TikTok on their work devices.
The start of a more global trend?
Most recently, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr urged Apple and Google to remove the app from their stores after a BuzzFeed News report was released alleging employees of Chinese company ByteDance repeatedly accessed the personal data of US users. TikTok CEO Show Zi Chu assured Republican senators in a letter saying the company is working with Oracle to protect its users’ data in Uncle Sam Land “under reliable and independent oversight.”He also said that TikTok is working on moving everything to Oracle servers in the US so that it can remove US user data from its own systems.
But Show Tzu Chu’s claims weren’t enough to completely allay officials’ concerns: FBI Director Chris Wray warned US lawmakers a few weeks ago that the Chinese government could use TikTok to “influence”through a recommendation algorithm or to “technically compromise”millions of devices. A TikTok spokesperson told Reuters that “the FBI’s statements are considered part of ongoing negotiations with the US government.”And to add that TikTok is confident it will find “a way to meet all reasonable requests in the face of this fear for American national security”after working with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in recent months.