New York City bans TikTok for government employees
Agencies reportedly have 30 days to remove the app from devices.
New York City will ban TikTok from government devices, The Verge reported on Wednesday. City agencies have 30 days to remove the ByteDance-owned app from their devices. Employees will not be allowed to download or use TikTok on their city-sanctioned tech effective immediately. This comes three years after New York state banned TikTok from government devices in 2020, according to Times-Union.
NYC Cyber Command, a subset of the Office of Technology and Innovation, spurred the decision after reporting to the city that TikTok posed a security threat. "NYC Cyber Command regularly explores and advances proactive measures to keep New Yorkers' data safe," a City Hall spokesperson said. "As part of these ongoing efforts, NYC Cyber Command determined that the TikTok application posed a security threat to the city’s technical networks and directed its removal from city-owned devices.”
Other states and localities, notably Montana, have made waves banning TikTok more generally across the jurisdiction. But on a wider scale, most legislators have taken an approach banning the app for government employees, including the federal government. Thirty-three states across parties lines now have restrictions on the use of TikTok on government-owned tech.
As legislation continues to resurface considering a total ban on TikTok and other apps affiliated with the Chinese government, ByteDance fights to proven that its not a threat to national security. TikTok CEO Shou Chew even testified in front of Congress reiterating that "ByteDance is not an agent of China."
