New York Metropolis turns into the newest to ban TikTok from all authorities units as safety issues over the platform’s Chinese language possession persist.
On Wednesday, New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams’ administration issued a ban on short-form video social app TikTok from all authorities units, requiring all metropolis staff and departments to take away the app from government-issued telephones and computer systems instantly inside 30 days. NYC Cyber Command, an entity specializing in cyber threats for the NYC Workplace of Know-how and Innovation, advisable the ban following a current safety evaluate.
“Different state-sponsored governments, that means governments which can be (…) considerably threatening to the US, (are) using TikTok on a number of platforms to both extrapolate our private info to realize intelligence on us or to make use of the applying for disinformation,” mentioned former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan.
“Whereas social media is nice at connecting New Yorkers with each other within the metropolis, we have now to verify we’re at all times utilizing these platforms in a safe method,” a Metropolis Corridor spokesperson advised NBC New York.
New York Metropolis is simply the newest authorities entity to ban TikTok from all government-owned units, becoming a member of the state and federal governments and different states like New Jersey, Ohio, Montana, Georgia, and Texas. The state of New York issued a ban in opposition to TikTok on authorities units in 2020.
In December, the U.S. Home of Representatives banned TikTok from authorities units, and the Biden administration just lately escalated a stress marketing campaign in opposition to the platform to encourage TikTok to separate from its Chinese language-owned mum or dad firm, ByteDance.
In the meantime, some members of Congress have pushed for years to have the app banned totally, citing the dangers to People’ information. Whereas the Chinese language authorities doesn’t outright personal TikTok’s proprietor ByteDance, it falls throughout the authorities’s jurisdiction ought to China request any of the corporate’s information.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew denied any ties to China’s authorities as he testified earlier than Congress in March over issues that the nation’s authorities may leverage the platform to compromise America’s nationwide safety.
Regardless of TikTok’s public relations marketing campaign within the U.S. and efforts to vary the way it shops person information, the corporate continues placing its proverbial foot in its mouth. Final yr, TikTok confirmed earlier studies that ByteDance staff tracked journalists’ IP addresses via the app in an effort to mitigate inside leaks. To brush it beneath the rug, ByteDance fired 4 staff.