The US state of New Jersey is considering restricting government agencies’ use of TikTok to certain devices that aren’t used for other government business, emails from CNN Breaking News show.
This move would avoid a complete ban on the Chinese app for government agencies, but it would still be a rare example of a heavily Democratic state joining efforts led by Republicans to curtail the popular video-sharing platform.
Last week, CNN Breaking News revealed that the staunchly liberal state of Washington is considering banning the use of TikTok by state agencies, which would make the state the first Democratic stronghold to ban the app for privacy and national security reasons.
In an email to colleagues obtained by CNN Breaking News, New Jersey’s top cybersecurity official said the state was considering a total ban on TikTok on government devices but would rather limit use of the app to “separate and isolated devices.”
“We continue to discuss TikTok’s total ban on government and private devices approved for government business purposes,” Michael Geraghty, chief information security officer of New Jersey, said in an email to colleagues at the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness on Dec. 7.
“Rather than an outright ban, we’ll likely provide guidance that requires authorities to use separate and isolated devices to use TikTok. We do the same for other types of access to websites and applications that pose security risks, such as the dark web.”
According to Geraghty, agencies using TikTok are implicitly supporting the dubious activities of the Chinese government, including influence on US soil.
“The decision to prohibit or restrict the use of a particular app or website is ultimately up to the agency making the decision and may depend on a variety of factors, including the potential risks and benefits of using the app or website, developer policies and practices, and the overall security and privacy landscape,” Geraghty said in the emails.
“The agencies that use TikTok must recognize that they implicitly support the collection of their personal data and that of their viewers by the Chinese regime and China’s influence in the USA.”
CNN Breaking News received the email after filing public records requests with agencies in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, including the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness did not respond to a request for comment.
To date, at least 19 US states have banned or restricted the use of TikTok on government devices, all of which, with the exception of Louisiana, have Republican governors.
Louisiana, a conservative state with a Democratic governor, has only banned the app on devices controlled by the state’s Republican Secretary of State.
New Jersey, an East Coast state that borders New York, is one of the 14 states where Democrats currently control the governorship and both branches of the state legislature.
Earlier this month, three New Jersey state Republican lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation to ban TikTok on government devices.
While Republicans have led efforts to ban TikTok at the state level, measures to restrict the app have received strong support across parties at the national level.
Last week, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and Senate passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that would ban TikTok from most federal government devices.
A separate bipartisan bill to completely ban TikTok in the US is pending in Congress, although it is generally assumed that it is unlikely to go into effect.
TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, has come under increasing scrutiny in the US since former President Donald Trump ordered the social media platform to divest its US assets amid concerns that the Chinese government could access users’ sensitive personal data.
TikTok has denied sharing personal information with the Chinese government and insisted on denying any requests in this regard.
It has also tried to address privacy concerns by agreeing to transfer all American users’ data to servers run by Texas-based Oracle.
In another controversy for TikTok, ByteDance admitted last week that some of its employees had improperly accessed user data to track two journalists as part of an internal investigation into media leaks.
A company spokesperson said the measures taken by employees were “unacceptable” and that those involved were no longer working for the company.