Wary of China, US state of South Dakota bans TikTok on state-owned devices
Governor Kristi Noem
Republican leader and South Dakota governor Kristi Noem on Tuesday issued an executive order banning the use of Chinese TikTok by state employees and contractors on government gadgets, citing the short video app's ties to Beijing.
“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us," said Noem in a statement posted on Twitter.
"The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform."
Noem added that the order which goes into effect immediately "prohibits downloading or using the TikTok application or visiting the website on state-owned or state-leased electronic devices capable of internet connectivity".
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TikTok did not immediately respond to Noem's order or the ban imposed.
Notably, the GOP leaders, in recent weeks have increased the pressure on TikTok and its owner ByteDance to come clean regarding its data-sharing policies.
WATCH | US: Senators call TikTok a 'massive surveillance tool; Is TikTok spying on you for China?
Last week, Republican lawmakers Cathy McMorris Rodgers and James Comer wrote a letter criticising ByteDance saying the Chinese company may have misled Congress about how much data it shares with China.
Both Rodgers and Comer are expected to set the House agenda next year after Republicans won the lower chamber in the just-concluded midterm elections.
Read more: Republicans target TikTok for sharing users’ data with China, likely to unleash probe
Previously, theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also warned against data leaks through the app. Director Christopher Wray told a House panel that potential Chinese government access to users’ data or software through the app is reason to be “extremely concerned”.
Wray added that ByteDance embeds specific application programming interfaces (APIs) in the app which gives Beijing access to “control data collection of millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm".
(With inputs from agencies)
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