(RepublicanNews.org) – On November 29, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem banned government employees in her state from using TikTok. The leader said the app poses a national security risk, and she refuses to have officials subject to any oversight or data grabbing by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On December 6, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan followed suit in barring the social media site for state employees. He released an Emergency Directive to remove TikTok and a litany of other Russian and Chinese products from state networks and disallowed their usage for individuals working in the state government.
Hogan orders TikTok ban for Maryland government employeeshttps://t.co/UdytzBrkts
— Larry Hogan (@LarryHogan) December 6, 2022
The measure said the employees had 14 days to remove the social media app, Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corp, Kaspersky, Tencent Holdings, and Alibaba products from all hardware and software on state-owned technology.
Hogan believes the items pose personal and national cybersecurity risks, noting “surveillance of government entities” and data collection are a real danger. The state leader aims to minimize such exposure.
In November, Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr suggested the move was warranted. He was one of a handful of commissioners to make the recommendation against the use of TikTok. Carr believes the only way to protect Americans and their data is to ban the app.
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