Arkansas Joins States Banning TikTok From Government Devices

Tiktok Inc. was banned from government devices and state networks by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), adding to a growing pool of states that have prohibited the app over security concerns.

Sanders’ Tuesday executive order, one of her first as governor, bars the use of any state-issued technology to download or access the popular social media app.

More than two dozen states have taken action to remove and block the app—owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.—from government devices and networks over concerns about data access by the Chinese government. The company disclosed in late December that four ByteDance employees inappropriately accessed TikTok data on some US users.

TikTok is working with the federal government to address security concerns raised at the state and federal level, TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown said in a statement.

“We’re disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok,” Brown said.”

The order also includes plans to uninstall TikTok from government devices within 30 days, and mandates the creation of a report identifying any other services being used by the Arkansas government that pose security risks due to their connection with a foreign adversary.

TikTok is set to be banned from all federal devices, after a provision barring its use was included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill signed into law by President Joe Biden in December.