American governmental officials have turned up the heat on controversial social-media app TikTok.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images News
With tensions between the United States and China rising over the U.S. shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, American governmental officials have turned up the heat on controversial social-media app TikTok.
The latest shot across the bow against Chinese-owned TikTok came from Texas Gov. Rick Abbott, who on Monday announced a statewide plan to ban the use of TikTok. Beginning February 15, Texas state agencies will have to implement policies to “ban and prevent the download or use of TikTok and prohibited technologies on any state-issued device” identified in the state’s new model security plan. The new crackdown comes on the heels of Abbott’s December 2022 directive requiring the leaders of state agencies to ban employees from downloading or using TikTok on Texas state-government issued devices.
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance (BDNCE), and Abbott said that connection, along with ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, was at the root of his decision.
“TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device, including details about a user’s Internet activity,” Abbott said, in a statement. “It is critical that state agencies and employees are protected from the vulnerabilities presented by the use of this app and other prohibited technologies.”
Concerns over TikTok’s widespread use in the U.S., and the app’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party, have been cited numerous times by American legislators. Last week, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet sent letters to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai asking them to remove TikTok from their app stores.
On Monday, the shares of Alibaba (BABA), JD.com (JD) and other notable Chinese tech stocks slipped into the red after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cancelled a planned meeting with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping due to the balloon incident.