SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Tuesday issued an executive order banning state employees and contractors from accessing the video platform TikTok on state-owned devices, citing its ties to China.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company headquartered in Beijing, and has been targeted by Republicans who say the Chinese government could access user data like browsing history and location. U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices.
TikTok's nearly addictive scroll of videos have also struggled to detect ads that contain blatant misinformation about U.S. elections, according to a recent report from nonprofit Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy team at New York University.
"The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform," Noem said in a statement.
