Gov. Kristi Noem banned the social media application TikTok on state-owned or state-leased devices on Tuesday, citing cybersecurity reasons, and she’s encouraging other leaders to do the same.
“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,” Noem said in a press release. “The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform.”
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“Because of our serious duty to protect the private data of South Dakota citizens, we must take this action immediately. I hope other states will follow South Dakota’s lead, and Congress should take broader action, as well,” she added.
The ban was ushered in by executive order and is effective immediately in the state. The order extends to all state employees and agencies as well as those who contract with the state.
Since the app’s meteoric rise, particularly in the United States, politicians and pundits have advocated restricting the app, either with a ban on state devices or a complete ban. Recently, Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr said the U.S. should outright ban the app.
“I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,” he said in an interview. He is calling on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to initiate a ban.
Despite TikTok’s claims that user data are safe and overseen by federal officials, Carr is still advocating the ban. According to him, there is not “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party].”
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Sen. Tom Cotton similarly urged the public to delete the controversial app. “Let me just be clear,” he began. “If you have TikTok on your device, you should delete it from your device. And even better, you should go and buy a new device and not download TikTok.”
He further reiterated that TikTok’s real danger is the vast amount of data it collects, which could be used against people in the future. In a letter to Homeland Security, Cotton wrote that the app was a threat to the safety and security of the public.
