Gov. Greg Abbott gives Texas state agencies until Feb. 15 to ban TikTok
Instagram / GovAbbott
Public universities across Texas began banning students from using TikTok on campus WiFi networks citing security concerns about the Chinese social media app.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Monday that state agencies will have until Feb. 15 to implement a new statewide security plan to ban the popular Chinese social media app TikTok.
Abbott’s move comes amid growing concerns from U.S. officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray, that the app operated by Chinese-based software company Byte Dance could be used to steal users data.
Even so, Abbott ratcheted up the hysteria a couple of notches, suggesting in a statement that “Chinese Communist Party members” in the company’s workforcer could have their sights on Texas’ valuable data.
“The security risks associated with the use of TikTok on devices used to conduct the important business of our state must not be underestimated or ignored,” Abbott said in a statement. “Owned by a Chinese company that employs Chinese Communist Party members, TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device, including details about a user’s internet activity. Other prohibited technologies listed in the statewide model plan also produce a similar threat to the security of Texans.”
Other than banning TikTok on state-issued devices, the model security plan also prohibits employees or contractors from conducting official state business on compromised devices such as personal cell phones with TikTok downloaded.
The plan also calls on agencies to remove TikTok from state-owned devices remotely and wipe compromised devices if necessary.
Abbott’s announcement Monday is the latest attempt by the Republican governor to scrub TikTok from the Lone Star State.
In January, state colleges, including the University of Texas at Austin, began banning students from accessing TikTok on university WiFi networks in response to Abbott’s December directive banning the network from all state-issued devices.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
