JTN: Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday issued an executive order banning Chinese social media apps TikTok and Weibo amid mounting concerns that such apps present security threats.
“TikTok and WeChat data are a channel to the Chinese Communist Party, and their continued presence represents a threat to national security, the intelligence community, and the personal privacy of every single American,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We are taking this step today to secure state government devices and wireless networks from the threat of infiltration and ensure that we safeguard the data and cybersecurity of state government.”
Youngkin’s move is the latest in an ongoing movement to restrict certain Chinese tech firms from accessing sensitive materials or operating as agents of the communist dictatorship in Beijing. The Senate this week unanimously passed a measure to ban TikTok from government devices.
Moreover, a bipartisan group of legislators have introduced a plan to ban the app from operating in the United States outright. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, operates out of Beijing and maintains close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. more here
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