North Dakota Gov. Burgum bans TikTok from state phones

BISMARCK — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum introduced Tuesday, Dec. 13, an order banning widespread video-sharing app TikTok from state-owned gadgets issued by businesses throughout the govt department.

The Republican governor cited safety issues tied to the Chinese language firm that runs TikTok. The FBI

alleged final month

that the Chinese language authorities might be able to use the app to affect customers or management their gadgets.

Burgum’s order got here hours after a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers led by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida,

unveiled laws

that may ban TikTok from working within the U.S.

“Defending residents’ information is our high precedence, and our IT professionals have decided, in session with federal officers, that TikTok raises a number of flags when it comes to the quantity of knowledge it collects and the way that information could also be shared with and utilized by the Chinese language authorities,” Burgum stated in a information launch.

The North Dakota Data Expertise Division (NDIT) will create controls to implement the ban.

“Decreasing this safety threat is the proper factor to do, and we might supply NDIT’s assist to help and advise any associate entities that want to pursue comparable measures,” Burgum added.

FBI Director Christopher Wray

instructed a congressional committee final month

that the company has issues about TikTok, together with “the likelihood that the Chinese language authorities might use it to regulate information assortment on hundreds of thousands of customers.”

The worldwide recognition of TikTok, referred to as Douyin in China, has rocketed upward because the app’s launch in 2016. The app recognized for that includes dance traits is believed to have over a billion customers worldwide, together with about 100 million within the U.S.

A handful of different states have additionally banned TikTok

on state-owned gadgets, together with South Dakota, Alabama, Utah, Maryland and Texas.