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New York City has banned city workers from using TikTok over fears the Chinese app poses a “security threat to the city’s tech networks.”
The decision would affect jobs such as police, council and city public relations, all of which are mandatory delete the app within 30 days.
The FBI and Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance could share user data with China’s authoritarian government.
The move comes as 34 states have announced or enacted bans on government agencies, employees, and contractors using TikTok on government-issued devices.
New York City has announced it plans to ban TikTok on city-owned devices, requiring agencies to remove the Chinese app in the next 30 days
DailyMail.com has reached out to New York City Hall for comment.
A spokesman for New York City Hall said in a statement The edgeWhile social media is great for connecting New Yorkers with each other and the city, we need to make sure we always use these platforms in a safe manner.
“NYC Cyber Command regularly researches and develops proactive measures to keep New Yorkers’ data safe.”
As states move to ban the app on government-owned devices, Montana passed a bill in April to ban TikTok from operating in the state.
The bill would ban TikTok downloading in Montana and would fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — $10,000 a day for every time someone is “given the opportunity” to access the social media platform or download the app.
The fines do not apply to users.
The Montana law isn’t the first blanket ban the company has faced. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning the use of TikTok and the Chinese messaging platform WeChat.
Those efforts were rejected by the courts and suspended by the Biden administration.
TikTok, owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, has come under intense scrutiny for providing user data to the Chinese government or pushing pro-Beijing propaganda and misinformation on the platform.
A member of the NYC Cyber Command said Wednesday that officials felt the video-sharing platform “posed a security threat to the city’s tech networks”
Lawmakers Grilled ByteDance Chew Shou Zi In March Over Whether Or Not To Share TikTok Data With China
Lawmakers grilled ByteDance Chew Shou Zi in March.
Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, fired the opening salvo: “Mr. Chew, you’re here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security. TikTok has repeatedly chosen a path towards more control, more surveillance and more manipulation.”
Chew replied, “Let me say this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.”
Some members of the committee were dissatisfied with Chew’s answers to their questions.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga, told Dailymail.com, “He was evasive. It was pretty obvious he didn’t want to answer our questions.
Carter added that the hearing had swayed him in favor of an “outright ban.”
“At the moment I am in favor of an outright ban. We need to get rid of this, this is killing us, literally killing our children and this is psychological warfare.”
The decision as to whether or not the app will be banned in the US is in limbo.
Americans are divided on banning TikTok – many say it violates their freedom of speech and others warn it corrupts young people and is being used as a Chinese espionage tool.
Gavin Dees, a TikToker with more than a million followers but wouldn’t disclose how much money he makes, told DailyMail.com: “Fighting for TikTok is not fighting for an app. It is fighting for the right to speak.
“It’s fighting for even people I may not believe quite the same way. I believe in your right to believe that and speak of it that way. And TikTok makes that possible in a way we’ve never seen before.”
Joe Gagliese of Viral Nation, a company representing more than 200 TikTok influencers, told DailyMail.com that before TikTok, people relied on major media companies for news, events and entertainment.
“They had all the eyeballs,” he said. “Social media has completely repelled that.”
However, parents are focused on the harm TikTok is doing to children.
Many parents are in favor of the TikTok ban, claiming that the app is harmful to children. Nylah Anderson, 10, accidentally killed herself while attempting a TikTok challenge
Several lawsuits filed by parents against TikTok’s parent company ByteDance allege that the app illegally collects data from minors in violation of children’s privacy laws.
On March 25, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved a $1.1 million settlement with ByteDance to resolve allegations that TikTok had collected data from children without consent and sold it to third parties without parental consent .
Other parents claim that TikTok opens children up to predators.
New York resident Kimberly Viola told WKBW that her 10-year-old daughter was exposed to sexually explicit material from a predator.
“What’s going on is that once these predators get on your friends’ list, they’re capable of exposing themselves to you,” explains Viola.
“So we had a predator that was able to encourage my daughter and show my daughter self-inflicting harmful images, but also encourage her on a sexual platform.”
TikTok has more than a billion monthly active users worldwide and 150 million living in the US, waiting for Congress to rule.