RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin banned using a number of Chinese language-owned apps, together with TikTok and WeChat, on state authorities units and wi-fi networks on Friday, calling them a risk to nationwide safety.
Youngkin’s govt order covers apps developed by ByteDance and Tencent. Companies who contract with Virginia should additionally prohibit their use on state-owned units or IT infrastructure.
“TikTok and WeChat information are a channel to the Chinese language Communist Get together, and their continued presence represents a risk to nationwide safety, the intelligence neighborhood, and the private privateness of each single American,” Youngkin, a Republican, stated in an announcement. “We’re taking this step at the moment to safe state authorities units and wi-fi networks from the specter of infiltration and make sure that we safeguard the information and cybersecurity of state authorities.”
Youngkin joins a minimum of 14 others governors who’ve taken such an motion, amid requires Congress to additionally ban using the packages on federal authorities units.
The manager order drew reward from one among Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Warner, who chairs the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence.
“TikTok has the stamp of approval of the Chinese language Communist Get together and it poses a critical nationwide safety risk attributable to its information assortment practices and its means to succeed in and manipulate People. I hope to see extra states take motion to maintain our authorities expertise out of the CCP’s attain,” Warner, a former governor, stated in an announcement.
TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown stated in an emailed assertion that it was “disappointing that states and a few federal officers are selling falsehoods to ban the platform as a substitute of advancing sound insurance policies to advertise U.S. nationwide safety pursuits.”
“Tens of millions of People depend on TikTok to develop their small companies, attain new audiences, and make their livelihoods,” Brown stated.
