New York last Wednesday, August 16, decided to ban the use of the TikTok app on government devices.
This decision means that the city joins the American states and federal agencies that have taken similar measures regarding the app. Against the background of the ban, some popular New York accounts were blocked in TikTok.
Jonah Allon, a spokesman for NY Mayor Eric Adams, says that the local cyber command has stated that the app is a threat to the security of New York’s technical networks. As part of the ban, city agencies must comply with the requirement to remove TikTok within 30 days.
In the accounts of Eric Adams in the app, the City Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Parks and Recreation, there were reports that these pages were managed by New York until August 2023 and are no longer controlled by the relevant organizations and individuals.
In the US, many government officials support the idea of restricting access to TikTok. They explain their position by concerns that the virtual platform, which is part of the ownership structure of the Chinese company ByteDance, may be a channel through which official Beijing receives confidential user data. The state of New York has banned the installation and use of TikTok on state-made mobile devices for more than three years. At the same time, certain exceptions were made in this case.
The state of Montana decided in the spring of 2023 to completely ban the use of the app, but it will take effect on January 1, 2024. TikTok disputes this decision, arguing its disagreement, among other things, that the ban is a violation of the First Amendment.
The City Sanitation Department unexpectedly gained popularity in the app, having an account with almost 50 thousand subscribers. Videos about department employees and various memes about garbage collection are published on this page. This account will no longer give users a positive on the virtual platform owned by ByteDance.
The US House of Representatives banned the use of TikTok on government devices in December 2022. This year, the administration of the President of the United States Joe Biden launched its campaign aimed at forcing the app to stop interacting with the Chinese owner.
In March 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress. For five hours, he answered questions from lawmakers related to concerns that the virtual platform could be an instrument of China’s influence on the United States as part of efforts to undermine national security. Also in the spring, the Joe Biden administration announced that if the app continues to exist in the ByteDance ownership structure, a ban on its use throughout the United States will be imposed. So far, this threat has not been implemented.
Shou Zi Chew stated that ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country. At the same time, last year TikTok confirmed information that employees of the parent company monitored the IP addresses of journalists through the app as part of the fight against internal leaks.
