New York City has taken a significant step by officially prohibiting the use of the popular video-sharing app, TikTok, among all employees within its governmental institutions. The municipal authorities have granted a 30-day window for the removal of the ByteDance-owned application from the devices utilized by government personnel.
Reported by Engadget, government workers are now promptly forbidden from either downloading or employing TikTok on their official municipal devices. This development echoes New York’s previous initiative in 2020 to outlaw the usage of TikTok on government-owned equipment.
The impetus behind this prohibition lies in the allegations that the utilization of TikTok by New York City’s government employees poses a direct security threat to crucial data. The NYC Cyber Command, responsible for safeguarding the city’s technological infrastructure, has determined that TikTok’s presence jeopardizes the integrity of the municipal network. Consequently, they have mandated the expeditious removal of the application from all employee devices.
This occurrence is not an isolated one, given that several other states and regions across the United States have previously taken similar actions by banning TikTok within their governmental agencies, citing data security concerns. Presently, as many as thirty-three states, spanning different political affiliations, have implemented restrictions on the use of TikTok on government-issued technology.
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has adamantly asserted in the past that the app does not collect user data within the United States and has no involvement in sharing such data with the Chinese government.
