Another TikTok ban has been proposed, this time in Texas!
Just a few weeks after Republican senator Josh Hawley's proposal to ban Tiktok on a nationwide scale, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has revealed his plan to ban the platform for all state employees. All Texas state agencies will need to implement plans to ban the platform from employee devices by February 15th. The policy will be enforced on both state-issued devices and personal ones.
"The security risks associated with the use of TikTok on devices used to conduct the important business of our state must not be underestimated or ignored," writes Abbott."Owned by a Chinese company that employs Chinese Communist Party members, TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user's device, including details about a user's internet activity.
China's ownership of TikTok has made it a lightning-rod for controversy over the last few years, earning the platform significant opposition from a number of Republican politicians, including former president Donald Trump. While Hawley's proposed nationwide ban on TikTok is unlikely to attract the support required, Abbott's ban on state-issued and personal devices used by government employees should prove to be much easier to enforce.
It's unclear if these proposals and bans will have any kind of impact on the social media platform's success. Hawley's proposal last month focused not only on TikTok's ownership, but also the impact the platform can have on the mental health of children. However, that proposal neglected to mention other social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which have similarly had a negative impact on the lives of minors throughout the last decade.