New Jersey, Ohio joins other states in banning TikTok on state devices

by David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New Jersey and Ohio said on Monday they were joining other states in banning the use of the popular video app TikTok on government-owned and operated devices.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said that in addition to banning the use of a short video app owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance on state devices, he also imposed a ban on vendors of software, products and services from more than a dozen vendors, including Huawei, Hikvision, Tencent Holdings, ZTE Corporation and Kaspersky Lab.

Murphy’s office said that “there are national security concerns regarding user data that the Chinese government may request ByteDance to share.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said in his order that “these sensitive data and cybersecurity practices create national and local security and cybersecurity risks for users of these applications and platforms and the devices storing these applications and platforms.”

TikTok said it was “disappointed that so many states will jump on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to improve cybersecurity in their states and are based on baseless lies about TikTok.”

On Friday, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said he plans to join other states in banning the popular video app that has more than 100 million users in the U.S.

Republican governors have made moves to ban TikTok on state devices, and some Democratic governors have been slower to do so.

Calls to block TikTok on government devices gained momentum after U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November that it posed a national security risk. Wray raised the threat that the Chinese government could use the app to influence users or control their devices.

Reuters reported on Friday that TikTok has paused the process of recruiting consultants to help it implement a potential security deal with the United States, two people familiar with the matter said, as more U.S. officials oppose such a deal.

For three years, TikTok has been trying to assure Washington that the personal data of US citizens cannot be accessed and their content cannot be manipulated by either the Chinese Communist Party or any other entity under Beijing’s influence.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio and Christopher Cushing)