PHOENIX — Governor Katie Hobbs announced an Executive Order Wednesday banning the use of TikTok on all state agency devices.
The order says state agencies have 30 days to be in compliance and can also file exemptions with “sufficient justification.”
The move comes days after Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University also announced similar bans on devices owned by each university.
Hobbs says the move is in an effort to reduce cybersecurity risks.
“This is a necessary step to ensure the protection of state data and reflects our commitment to keeping Arizonans safe,” said Governor Hobbs. “My office is working closely with state entities to ensure this transition happens smoothly.”
Loud warnings about TikTok have also been coming from President Joe Biden's administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and FBI Director Christopher Wray have told Congress in recent weeks that TikTok is a national security threat. Blinken told lawmakers the threat “should be ended one way or another."
But some members are unconvinced.
“It’s like turning your cell phone off on an airplane. You’re supposed to do. And if it was super dangerous, I don’t think we will be allowed to have the phone on the plane,” Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, said Wednesday, “So if it was super dangerous for members of Congress to have this app on their phone, you have to imagine the administration or our government would say absolutely not, you can’t have it on a government phone.”
Concerns about what kind of content Americans encounter online, or how their data is collected by technology companies, also aren’t new. Congress has been wanting to curtail the amount of data tech companies collect on consumers through a national privacy law, but those efforts have stalled repeatedly over the years.
Still, Biden's administration has made implications that a ban of TikTok across the entire United States is not out of the realm of possibility.
