Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Monday issued an executive order banning the Chinese social media app TikTok from all state-owned devices.
Cox's move follows similar orders from governors in states such as South Dakota.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is based in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Security concerns are centered around the potential of the Chinese government to order the app’s makers to give up personal data. TikTok has said it would never comply with such a request.
The short-form video app has grown tremendously in popularity in recent years, and now has roughly 100 million active users in the U.S.
In a press release, Gov. Cox said that “China’s access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat to our cybersecurity.”
The governor’s order, which is effective immediately, bans the app on state-owned electronic devices, such as phones, laptops, and tablets. Active state TikTok accounts, some of which have quite a presence on the app, will now have to be taken down.
The Utah Department of Transportation has over 120,000 followers on TikTok, and the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources has over 7,000. Last week a video of UDOT snow plows garnered over 3 million views on the app.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney and House Rep. John Curtis both endorsed Cox’s order on Monday.
TikTok, which is owned by a company headquartered in China, poses grave security concerns to Utah and the country. This is the right move and will better protect sensitive data from getting into hands of the CCP. https://t.co/dEXKMFXRz4
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) December 12, 2022
The Park City Fire District and the Heber City Police Department are both active on TikTok. Park City Fire has over 4,000 followers and has accrued over 30,000 likes on the app. The governor's order does not impact their accounts. The ban only applies to agencies in the state executive branch.
In November, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee that the agency has “national security concerns” about the app. Specifically, Wray spoke of the possibility of the Chinese government using it to control data collection, or by altering the recommendation algorithm — for example, by removing videos of protests.
Several Republicans in Washington have publicly expressed their support for a national ban on TikTok.
