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Spencer Cox, the state governor of Utah in the United States, has announced an immediate ban — via executive order — on installing or using TikTok on all state-owned devices.
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Governor Cox is concerned about Chinese government access to user data on the Chinese-owned app.
“China’s access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat,” Governor Cox said in his announcement. “As a result, we’ve deleted our TikTok account and ordered the same on all state-owned devices. We must protect Utahns and make sure that the people of Utah can trust the state’s security systems.”
The order also confirms that the ban covers the Utah National Guard and State Tax Commission but does not include a range of other state agencies, including education boards, the Attorney General’s Office, and the judicial branch of state government.
Utah, a Republican-led state, follows two other red states in banning TikTok in state agencies. Both Texas and Maryland banned the app earlier this month, also claiming security concerns.
“This action represents a critical step in protecting Maryland state systems from the cyber security threats caused by foreign organisations,” said Chip Stewart, chief information security officer for Texas, in a statement.
The bans follow a warning from Chris Wray, Director the Federal Bureau of Investigations, that Chinese government control of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm allows the government to “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations”.
Earlier in the year and closer to home, Liberal Senator James Paterson wrote to Australia’s Minister for Cyber Security Clare O'Neil regarding concerns about Chinese government access to Australian user information in TikTok.
“I’ve written to Minister for Cyber Security Clare O'Neil to urge the Albanese government to take action to protect Australia’s 7 million TikTok users given these concerning revelations," Senator Paterson wrote in a Twitter post in July this year, after corresponding with TikTok’s director of public policy in Australia, Brent Thomas.
According to Thomas, “Only people who need the data ‘in order to do their jobs’ have access”, in response to Senator Paterson’s initial inquiry.
When asked if TikTok can refuse to hand over its user data to the Chinese government, Thomas stated “that no such request had ever been made”.
According to Internet 2.0, a joint Australian-US cyber security firm, TikTok seeks to track an alarming amount of user data, from hourly location checks, access to the user’s calendar, and access to a user’s contacts. The app can even track the hardware specs of a user’s phone, and every other app being used on a device.
