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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin banned using a number of Chinese language-owned apps, together with TikTok and WeChat, on state authorities gadgets and wi-fi networks on Friday, calling them a risk to nationwide safety.
Youngkin’s government order covers apps developed by ByteDance and Tencent. Companies who contract with Virginia should additionally prohibit their use on state-owned gadgets or IT infrastructure.
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“TikTok and WeChat knowledge are a channel to the Chinese language Communist Occasion, and their continued presence represents a risk to nationwide safety, the intelligence group, and the private privateness of each single American,” Youngkin, a Republican, mentioned in an announcement. “We’re taking this step as we speak to safe state authorities gadgets and wi-fi networks from the specter of infiltration and be sure that we safeguard the info and cybersecurity of state authorities.”
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Youngkin joins at the least 14 others governors who’ve taken such an motion, amid requires Congress to additionally ban using the applications on federal authorities gadgets.
The manager order drew reward from one in every of Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Warner, who chairs the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence.
“TikTok has the stamp of approval of the Chinese language Communist Occasion and it poses a critical nationwide safety risk as a result of its knowledge assortment practices and its potential to succeed in and manipulate Individuals. I hope to see extra states take motion to maintain our authorities know-how out of the CCP’s attain,” Warner, a former governor, mentioned in an announcement.
TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown mentioned in an emailed assertion that it was “disappointing that states and a few federal officers are selling falsehoods to ban the platform as a substitute of advancing sound insurance policies to advertise U.S. nationwide safety pursuits.”
“Tens of millions of Individuals depend on TikTok to develop their small companies, attain new audiences, and make their livelihoods,” Brown mentioned.
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