In addition to banning TikTok, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has also prohibited software vendors, products, and services from over a dozen vendors, including Huawei, Hikvision, Tencent Holdings, ZTE Corporation, and Kaspersky Lab. Governor Murphy cited national security concerns about user data that the Chinese government might require ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to provide.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has also issued an order banning TikTok on state devices. Governor DeWine stated that "surreptitious data privacy and cybersecurity practices" posed a national and local security threat to users of the app and the devices storing it.
TikTok has responded by saying it is "disappointed" that so many states are enacting policies "based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok."
Calls to ban TikTok from government devices gained momentum after FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November that the app poses national security risks, as the Chinese government could use it to influence users or control their devices.
