Is this the beginning of a new wave of action against TikTok?
Today, the City of New York has announced that TikTok is now banned on all city-owned devices, expanding on other federal and state bans of the app on government-owned tools.
The ban comes after a review by NYC Cyber Command, which found that TikTok poses a security threat to the city’s technical networks.
As per NYC Cyber Command (via The Verge):
“While social media is great at connecting New Yorkers with one another and the city, we have to ensure we are always using these platforms in a secure manner. NYC Cyber Command regularly explores and advances proactive measures to keep New Yorkers’ data safe.”
It’s another red flag for TikTok, which continues to fail official cybersecurity tests, which could eventually see it banned outright for all users in the US.
The state of New York was actually the first US state to ban the use of TikTok on government devices, with its initial rules against the app announced back in 2020. Since then, many US states and counties have followed suit, though only one has gone so far as to outlaw the app entirely.
Back in May, Montana announced that it would be banning TikTok for all users in the region from early next year. That ruling is now being challenged in court by TikTok and its users, who’ve argued that the ban violates their respective first amendment rights.
The US Government, meanwhile, continues to weigh a possible TikTok ban. Back in March, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee gave President Joe Biden the power to ban the Chinese-owned app, if he deemed such a move necessary, amid ongoing security discussions around its potential connection to the CCP.
Since then, however, the TikTok ban chatter has quietened down, as tensions between the US and China simmer, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) continues to weigh its ruling on the app. CFIUS has been reviewing the app for almost three years, and it’s unclear why it’s taking so long to make an official announcement on its stance. But it could still see TikTok banned, at pretty much any moment, despite the app seemingly falling out of focus for lawmakers in recent months.
Will the NYC ban put it back under the spotlight, and put more pressure on CFIUS to make an announcement?
As I’ve noted previously, it feels like TikTok is an international incident away from a US ban. Talk of a TikTok ban ramped up significantly earlier this year, after the US ordered a Chinese balloon in US air space to be shot down, amid concerns that it was being used to spy on the US and Canada. That’s the type of tension that puts more focus on the app, and it seems like another clash between the two governments could be the final straw for the app.
But TikTok is still working on its alternative solution to appease US regulators, and maybe, even if a ban is enacted, TikTok will have another option to remain active, and keep feeding users their daily dose of short-form video clips.
In other words, I don’t expect a TikTok ban to arise straight away. But the NYC ban is a reminder that such could be enacted, anytime.
