On Tuesday, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive order banning TikTok for state government agencies, employees, and contractors using state devices.
“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of the Chinese Communist Party,” Noem stated.
Today, I signed an Executive Order that bans the Chinese social media platform TikTok for state government agencies, employees, and contractors using state devices.
South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of the Chinese Communist Party. pic.twitter.com/ux2gxmOeDf
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) November 29, 2022
“This order is in response to the growing national security threat posed by TikTok due to its data gathering operations on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” a release stated.
“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,” said Noem.
“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.”
Cont. from the release:
The order takes effect immediately and would apply to employees and agencies of the State of South Dakota, including persons and entities who contract with the state, commissions, and authorities or agents thereof. The order prohibits downloading or using the TikTok application or visiting the website on state-owned or state-leased electronic devices capable of internet connectivity.
“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,” continued Governor Noem.
Breitbart reported:
Noem is the latest public official to take and/or call for action against TikTok over concerns that it could surveil Americans.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr in early November called for the United States to ban TikTok over privacy concerns.
“There simply isn’t 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],” Carr said.
The Donald Trump administration in 2020 attempted to ban TikTok, which would have resulted in ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, divesting the platform to an American company.
Democrat Sen. Mark Warner admitted that President Trump was right about TikTok being an “enormous threat.”
Warner, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, made the comments during an interview with Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday.
“I think Donald Trump was right, I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat, it’s a threat on two levels,” Warner said.
“One, it is a massive collector of information, oftentimes of our children. They can visualize even down to your keystrokes. So If you’re a parent and you’ve got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned,” Warner explained.
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