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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt bans TikTok on government-issued devices

A view of the TikTok app logo, in Tokyo.
Kiichiro Sato
/
AP
A view of the TikTok app logo, in Tokyo.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has joined a number of his Republican colleagues in banning the social media app TikTok on state devices and networks.

Stitt issued anexecutive order blacklisting the social media application on government devices and networks.

In his order, Stitt writes TikTok’s broad data collection policies present a cybersecurity threat to the state.

A number of Republican Governors, including those inMaryland, Nebraska, South Carolina,South Dakota andTexas, have made similar moves in banning the app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

The U.S. military has also prohibited the app on military devices.

“Maintaining the cybersecurity of state government is necessary to continue to serve and protect Oklahoma citizens and we will not participate in helping the Chinese Communist Party gain access to government information,” Stitt said in a news release about the order.

The social media application is incredibly popular and has more than 1 billion monthly users. Government agencies –including the White House – have been using it as an outreach tool, especially to reach younger people.

It remains to be seen how public college campuses will handle the ban. TikTok is often used by universities as a recruitment tool because of its popularity, and many students access the app using university-owned Internet networks while on campus.

This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.

Robby Korth joined StateImpact Oklahoma in October 2019, focusing on education reporting.