Louisiana's governor, chief elections officer and now its state education superintendent are joining a growing number of officials in other states banning the wildly popular TikTok app on government-issued devices because of fears its Chinese owner ByteDance could access and compromise data from users.
On Monday morning Louisiana School Superintendent Cade Brumley emailed all state district leaders to "immediately remove TikTok or any other applications developed by ByteDance Limited from any publicly-funded devices. Further, I am recommending that TikTok be eliminated as a communication outlet for school systems and schools including co-curricular clubs, extracurricular organizations and sports teams."
Before Christmas, Louisiana Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin was the first Louisiana elected official to ban TikTok from any devices issued by his agency, followed by a ban issued by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards through his Commission of Administration Jay Dardenne.
TikTok allows users on its platform to create and share short-form videos on any topic.
Edwards himself posted videos on TikTok before Dardenne issued the state ban after Christmas.
"This affects both agency-owned phones and laptops as well as personal devices while they are connected to state wireless networks, even if the app is already installed," Dardenne said in the directive.
Governors in at least seven other states have issued similar bans.
The U.S. military has also banned TikTok, as well as the Transportation Security Administration.
Critics of TikTok say the Chinese government could access data like browsing history and location. In China, the government has great control over private companies.
FBI Director Chris Wray has raised concerns as well.
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray told an audience at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Last week Ardoin said he will join Marksville Republican state Rep. Daryl Deshotel in supporting legislation to make the TikTok ban law when the Legislature meets in April.
“TikTok is a Chinese company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The last thing we need to do is give them access to the data on our state devices,” Deshotel said. “This is common sense. We have no way of knowing what information is being shared or how TikTok is being used by the Chinese government to gather information on United States government officials.
“TikTok is a clear and present danger to our national security and election integrity.”
"TikTok is a threat to our citizens' personal data and has no business on any device owned by the state of Louisiana,” Ardoin said. “Rep. Deshotel and I believe we should be doing everything we can to protect our constituents’ personally identifiable information. This bill will help do just that.”
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