Two more US states Wisconsin and North Carolina have ordered to ban TikTok on government devices due to cybersecurity concerns. This decision comes after US President Joe Biden recently signed the order banning federal employees from using the app on government devices.
The order was not just about banning TikTok from state devices, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said on Thursday he is banning Vendors, products and services from other Chinese companies like Huawei, Hikvision, ZTE Corp Tencent Holdings too. The order also includes Russia-based company Kaspersky Lab under the ban list.
“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.
TikTok, WeChat, and “possibly other applications” that pose cybersecurity threats should not be used on state-owned devices, according to a directive issued by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. This directive gives authorities 14 days to create a policy prohibiting their usage.
Twenty other US states have already banned TikTok, including Ohio, New Jersey, and Arkansas earlier this week. 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.”
In the US call to ban TikTok from government devices gained steam only after FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November it poses national security risks. He warned of the threat the app possesses as the Chinese government could use the app to influence users or even control their devices in his opinion.
TikTok has been under the scanner for quite some time by governments all around the world. The apprehensions that these governments have is that the data of app owners would be accessed by China’s Communist Party or any other entity under Beijing’s influence and would be used to manipulate app users. This is a major concern as the app has over a billion users all around the world.