Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed an order banning the TikTok social media platform in her state over concerns that the application was gathering information to be used by the hostile communist government in China.
“South Dakota is banning TikTok for state government. We will have no part in intelligence gathering for China, a nation that hates America,” Noem tweeted.
“I hope other states quickly follow this example and protect the vital private information of our citizens,” she added.
Her statement said the bill would ban the application for “state government agencies, employees, and contractors using state devices.”
Experts have expressed concerns that the popular application appears to be very invasive when downloaded onto phones, and there is evidence that the company is sending users’ private information to the Chinese government. TikTok was bought by ByteDance, a company partly owned by the Chinese government.
“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,” Noam added.
Others have pointed out that the application appears to be tweaked to keep users distracted in the U.S. while it reinforces good habits and behavior in China.
South Dakota Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson applauded Noem’s announcement and said there were efforts to do the same in the federal government.
“This is great news. I’ve been leading legislation to do this at the federal level, too. China and TikTok pose a real threat to national security,” tweeted Johnson.
“It’s great to see momentum growing from other leaders to #BlockTheTok,” he added.
A report in August from Forbes found that hundreds of employees at TikTok and ByteDance had previously worked for the Chinese government, and many others continued to work for both the communist government and the social media companies.
Here’s more about the Chinese spying app TikTok:
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