LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The social media platform TikTok has been under scrutiny for a while now and most recently it’s been the topic of conversation concerning government officials using the platform.

As reported by Michigan News Source in the beginning of December, when FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared in Ann Arbor as part of the Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture Series at Ford School, he was asked by Associate Professor of Public Policy, Joy Rohde if he thought TikTok was a threat to national security.

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Wray said that because the parent company of TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, that control gives the Chinese government the potential to “leverage the app in ways that I think should concern us.” He expressed those concerns as them changing algorithms, manipulating content, stealing user data, getting access to the software and devices of millions of users and also engaging in espionage operations.

Before that in November, Wray had also told a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that the FBI had “national security concerns” about the U.S. operations of TikTok.

TikTok, which gained one billion monthly active users as of September 2021, is owned by a Chinese company, the Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. However, Chinese national security laws allow the government to force domestic and foreign firms operating within their country to share their data with the Chinese government when requested. TikTok has pushed back against that and said that they store the data from the United States within the U.S. and they don’t acquiesce to the Chinese government and their content moderation requirements. However, a report BuzzFeed News points to the Chinese repeatedly accessing user data from China.

Currently, 14 states have banned their government officials from using the TikTok app on state devices. Those states are Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin are also considering a ban.

However, Center Square reports that Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer is still using TikTok. She has about 187.5K followers on the platform and has posted under the handle of @biggretchwhitmer as recently as January 1st, with a post about her second inauguration.

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Back at the end of December, Caleb Buhs, a spokesperson for the Department of Technology, Management and Budget said in a statement, “Our security team is reviewing the threats that TikTok may pose. We receive information from federal security teams as part of a cybersecurity ecosystem that regularly shares threat information.”

Seven Michigan Republican members in the 117th United States Congress had sent Gov. Whitmer a letter urging her to ban TikTok from all state-funded devices, including the smartphones that are issued to public university employees. The letter had said, “This is not a partisan issue, but one of national security, and indeed the security and privacy of all Michiganders. We implore you to protect Michigan employees and our educational institutions form the threat of (Chinese Communist Party) influence, data collection and control.”

Montana’s Republican Governor Greg Gianforte banned TikTok on all state-issued equipment in December of 2022 because it harvests data from user devices for the Chinese government. In a memo to his Chief Information Officer and state executive agency directors, Gianforte said, “Government’s chief responsibility is keeping its citizens safe and secure. Use of TikTok on state devices poses a significant risk to the security of our state and Montanans’ sensitive data.” The ban also includes third-party firms conducting business for or on the behalf of the State of Montana.

CBS has reported that the huge $1.7 trillion omnibus bill includes a ban on the use of TikTok on federal government devices which will start in mid-February. According to the CBS report, the bill requires the “removal of TikTok on executive branch agency employee phones, not on the phones used by congressional staff or Members of Congress themselves. Congressional phones, much like executive branch agency devices are funded by taxpayers. It also includes exemptions for law enforcement purposes.”

Michigan News Source reached out to Governor Whitmer’s office to comment about the governor’s continued use of TikTok and the possibility of banning Michigan government officials from using the app on state-owned devices. They did not respond to our request for comment.