Georgia has become at least the 11th state to prohibit TikTok from being used on state-owned devices. Governor Brian Kemp has also prohibited the use of WeChat and Telegram by state agencies.
Kemp expressed concern that the Chinese and Russian governments may gain access to users’ personal information via the apps and use the data for spying purposes.
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“The state of Georgia has a responsibility to prevent any attempt to access and infiltrate its secure data and sensitive information by foreign adversaries such as the [Chinese Communist Party],” Kemp wrote in a memo to state agency heads, as the Associated Press reports.
“As such, it is our duty to take action to preserve the safety and security of our state against the CCP, entities it controls and other foreign cyberthreats.”
This month, FBI Director Chris Wray stated that China could use TikTok to collect data on users. Kemp referred to those remarks in his directive.
A spokesperson for the governor told the AP that there would be exceptions to the rules for law enforcement and prosecutors to use the three apps after obtaining permission. State colleges and universities are among those affected by the ban.
South Dakota, Maryland, Texas, Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah have all passed similar legislation. The US military has banned TikTok from devices it owns too. Meanwhile, Indiana sued the app earlier this month, citing security and child safety concerns.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted unanimously to prohibit TikTok from being used on federal government devices. The legislation still needs to be approved by the House before it can be signed into law by President Joe Biden. This week, lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced bipartisan bills to completely ban TikTok in the United States.
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TikTok has attempted to assuage American politicians’ concerns about Chinese officials gaining access to user data in the country. TikTok has been routing all domestic traffic to Oracle’s servers since June, ensuring that the data remains in the United States.
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have promised to delete the data from their own data centers in the United States and Singapore. Oracle began investigating TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation systems for signs of manipulation in August.
