After Maryland, Texas bans use of TikTok on govt devices, Indiana sues platform for deceiving users

Texas governorGreg Abbottis the latest to order state agencies to ban TikTok on government-issued devices. The decision was delivered on Wednesday and cited security issues as reason.“TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices – including when, where and how they conduct Internet activity, and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government,” the letter sent to state agency leaders said.

The same day,Indiana sued the Chinese-owned short-video sharing app TikTok over allegations that it is deceiving users about China's access to their data and exposing children to mature content.

A day earlier, under an emergency directive issued by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, the use of theplatform on state government devices and networks was prohibited. The Republicans have been coming down hard on the video platform. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had signed a similar executive order last week that barred state employees and contractors from installing or using TikTok on state-owned devices. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster had on Monday also asked a state agency to ban from state government phones and computers.

Hogan's ban includes several Chinese and Russian-influenced products and platforms since he believes they present an "unacceptable level of cybersecurity risk to the state".

Maryland executive branch agencies have been directed to remove the products from state networks and prevent access.

Meanwhile, TikTok said misinformation is fuelling such concerns prompting state bans.

"We are disappointed that the many state agencies, offices, and universities that have been using TikTok to build communities and connect with constituents will no longer have access to our platform," the company said on Tuesday.

Hogan's directive also covers Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corp, Tencent Holdings' WeChat, QQ and QQ Wallet, Alibaba products and Russia's Kaspersky Lab.

FBI Director Chris Wray had earlier said that TikTok's US operations raised national security concerns. The risk of Chinese government harnessing the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices is real, he said.

Beijing could also use the popular app, owned by ByteDance, to "control software on millions of devices," giving it the opportunity to "technically compromise" those devices, Wray added.

The government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had ordered ByteDance in 2020 to divest TikTok because of fears that US user data could be passed on to Beijing.

CFIUS and TikTok have been trying for a long time to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok's more than 100 million US users. However, it seems unlikely that a deal would be reached before January.

Former President Donald Trump in 2020 had tried to stop new US users from downloading WeChat and TikTok, a move that didn't materialise due to a series of lost court battles.

President Joe Biden in June 2021 withdrew Trump's executive orders that sought to ban the downloads and directed the Commerce Department to conduct a review of security concerns posed by the apps.

(With inputs from agencies)

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