Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced Monday that he will ban TikTok on all State Department-issued devices.
In addition, the Republican urged Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to do the same and immediately ban the use of the popular video-sharing app on all government devices in the state.
“As Secretary of State, I have a great responsibility to protect voters’ personally identifiable information, which is why I have taken the action to ban the use of TikTok on all devices owned or leased by my agency,” Ardoin said in a statement. Letter to the Democratic Governor. .
“I sincerely believe that doing this at the state level will protect our data and reaffirm our commitment to protect the privacy of our voters,” he said.
As of Monday afternoon, Ardoin’s office said it had not yet received a response from the governor. Edwards has a verified TikTok account, which has been used primarily to urge residents to get vaccinated against covid-19.
At least 14 governors have ordered their agencies not to use TikTok on state-issued devices. These states include Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, North Dakota, Texas, and Utah.
In 2020, the US Senate passed a bill to ban Tik Tok, but it never passed the House. Other bills to regulate or ban TikTok and other apps are also pending in Congress. The US military has banned the app on military devices.
Critics say they fear the Chinese government is gaining access to critical information through the app and could be using it to spread misinformation or propaganda. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.
While there has been much debate about whether the Chinese government is actively collecting data from the app, Los Angeles-based TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas said the company protects the data of all US users. and that TikTok employees of the Chinese government do not have access to them. .
Earlier this month, TikTok spokesman Jamal Brown told the Associated Press that it’s disappointing that some state and federal officials are “promoting falsehoods” to ban the platform.
Source: TSF
