Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs passed an executive order (EO) banning TikTok from all government devices on April 5 noting cybersecurity concerns.
“The security and privacy of Arizonans’ data is of the utmost importance to the State of Arizona, and it is in the best interest of the state to perform due diligence and exercise due care in safeguarding that data to reduce cybersecurity risks,” states the order.
As part of the new EO, the entire government of Arizona and its agencies have 30 days to “remove TikTok from state-owned and state-leased information technology and personal devices used for state work,” according to the order.
The push to remove TikTok from state government devices comes on the heels of various other state governments banning the app, as well as the Federal government “due to security concerns and concerns about the application’s potential to spread misinformation and propaganda,” the order says.
Government officials have argued that TikTok, which is owned by the China-based tech giant ByteDance, poses a large security risk to the United States.
“Cybersecurity experts have expressed concerns about the collection of user data by the social networking service TikTok or any successor application or service of TikTok developed or provided by ByteDance Limited, a privately held company headquartered in Beijing, China,” the EO says.
