New Jersey and Ohio join other states like Kansas in banning TikTok from state-issued devices

The states of New Jersey and Ohio announced that they will be banning TikTok on government-owned and managed devices. The two states join a long and growing list of US states who have banned the use of the popular video app or even have the app on devices issued by the state governments. [caption id=“attachment_11962662” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] New Jersey and Ohio become the latest states in the US to ban TikTok in state-issued devices, given to government employees. It looks like the app from ByteDance may soon be banned completely in the US. Image Credit: AFP[/caption] Democratic governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy announced that in addition to removing the ByteDance-owned short-video app from state-owned devices, he was also removing software providers, goods, and services from more than a dozen companies, including Huawei, Hikvision, Tencent, ZTE Corporation, and Kaspersky Lab. According to Murphy’s office, “there have been national security concerns regarding user data that ByteDance would be required to transfer to the Chinese government." Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine stated in his order that “users of these programmes and platforms, as well as the devices storing the applications and platforms, pose hazards to national and local security and cybersecurity." TikTok said it was “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." On Friday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he planned to join other states in banning the use of the popular video app that has more than 100 million US users. Republican governors have led the charge to ban TikTok from state devices and some Democratic governors have been slower to do so. After US FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in November that TikTok presents hazards to national security, calls to prohibit it on government computers gained momentum. The possibility that the Chinese government may use the software to sway users or manage their devices was raised by Wray. According to two persons familiar with the situation, TikTok has suspended the employment of consultants who would aid it in implementing a prospective security pact with the United States as more American officials reject such a deal, according to Reuters on Friday. For the past three years, TikTok has worked to reassure Washington that the Chinese Communist Party or any other organisation influenced by Beijing cannot access the personal information of American people or alter its content.