LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Last week, more states and the US Congress joined the growing number of legislative bodies that have banned access to TikTok to some degree from their government employees.
On Thursday, several Michigan members of Congress including: Reps. Tim Walberg (R) Tipton, Fred Upton (R) St. Joseph, Bill Huizenga (R) Holland, John Moolenaar (R) Midland, Jack Bergman (R) Watersmeet, Peter Meijer (R) Grand Rapids, and Lisa McClain (R) Romeo, signed and submitted a letter to Governor Gretchen Whitmer requesting her to consider legislation banning the app.
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“In recent years, the U.S. Congress has taken several actions to protect Americans’ privacy and security from the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” the letter said, “Accordingly, we write to urge you to ban the use of TikTok on all Michigan state issued devices, including all state-funded devices used by educational institutions.”
One of the chief concerns of the letter states that the parent company of the app, ByteDance, is headquartered in China, and legally obligated to share information with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which could be a concern as the app has been revealed to save personal user data.
“As part of this directive, we urge you to explore additional actions that would prohibit the use of TikTok on the personal devices of employees of the state. Indeed, we hope you will act on our request by deleting the TikTok account associated with you and the office of the Governor, BigGretchWhitmer,” the letter also stated in reference to her TikTok handle.
In late November, South Dakota under the leadership of Governor Kristi Noem became the first state to publicly decry the safety concerns of the app and formally ban it from all use by government officials. Since then, more than 15 states have also made hard decisions about the future of the app and its position in government in their respective states. To date, these states include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
On Friday, as part of the $1.7 trillion Omnibus bill, Congress passed a provision that would ban the app from government devices.
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“The act prohibits TikTok from being downloaded or accessed through any federally issued device or network, with exceptions for using the app to develop possible risk mitigation measures,” according to Forbes.
So far, Governor Whitmer has not publicly addressed the letter from the members of Congress. Michigan News Source has reached out to the governor’s office for comment, but has not received a response at this time.
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