TikTok prohibited on official devices in more than 20 US states

Kentucky has joined more than 20 other states in prohibiting the widely used video app TikTok from being used on official devices due to security concerns.

The state claimed to have amended its employee handbook to forbid state personnel from accessing the Chinese-owned app "other than for a law enforcement reason" on government-managed devices. The governors of Wisconsin and North Carolina made proclamations on Thursday prohibiting TikTok use on official equipment. Earlier this week, identical moves were also taken in Arkansas, New Jersey, and Ohio.

More states than only TikTok have targeted the app. For instance, the states of New Jersey and Wisconsin have also outlawed suppliers, goods, and services from other Chinese firms like Huawei Technologies, Hikvision, Tencent Holdings, the owner of WeChat, ZTE Corporation, and Kaspersky Lab in Russia.

"Disappointed" that "so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact regulations that will do nothing to promote cybersecurity in their jurisdictions and are based on unsubstantiated claims about TikTok," TikTok stated in a statement.

The governors of the majority of the states that have taken action thus far are Republicans, although those of Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Kentucky are all Democrats.

After U.S. When FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that TikTok threatens national security in November, proposals to ban it from government computers gathered steam.

Wray brought up the prospect that the Chinese government could utilise the software to influence people or control their machines.

More than 100 million people use TikTok, which has tried to ensure Washington for the past three years that the Chinese Communist Party and other Beijing-influenced organisations are unable to access or change the content of American citizens' personal information.

President Joe Biden last month signed a bill into law that restricts the use and download of TikTok for federal employees.