South Dakota now prohibits government workers from using TikTok on state-owned devices

Government agencies, employees and contractors in South Dakota are now prohibited from using TikTok on state-owned devices. This move comes as a result of an executive order signed on Thursday by Gov. Kristi Noem.

South Dakota’s executive order came in response to “the growing national security threat posed by TikTok due to it collecting data on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” a press release said.

“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,” Noem said, according to Breitbart News. “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.”

“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,” Noem said.

The law specifically prohibits “downloading or using the TikTok application or visiting the website on state-owned or state-leased electronic devices capable of internet connectivity.”

In June, a BuzzFeed investigation of leaked audio recordings showed that the data of U.S. TikTok users had been repeatedly accessed from China. One director was recorded referring to a Beijing engineer named “Master Admin” who “has access to everything.”

FBI Director Chris Wray also said in November that there is a “possibility that the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations.”

TikTok has consistently denied these allegations.