New York Metropolis on Wednesday joined a wave of states and federal companies in banning TikTok from government-owned gadgets primarily based on safety issues, snuffing out some in style city-run TikTok accounts within the course of.
Jonah Allon, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams, stated in a press release that town’s Cyber Command decided that the app “posed a safety menace to town’s technical networks.” Metropolis companies should take away the app inside 30 days and workers will lose entry to TikTok and its web site from city-owned gadgets and networks.
The TikTok accounts of Mr. Adams, town’s Division of Sanitation and the Division of Parks and Recreation all up to date their bios with this message: “This account was operated by NYC till August 2023. It’s now not monitored.”
Quite a few authorities officers have been proscribing entry to TikTok in response to issues that the app, which is owned by the Chinese language firm ByteDance, might give Beijing entry to delicate person information. New York State has banned TikTok on state-issued cellular gadgets for greater than three years, with some exceptions.
The bans have largely been restricted to official gadgets, although Montana not too long ago handed a invoice barring TikTok throughout the state. That rule, which is ready to take impact on Jan. 1, is being challenged by TikTok on a number of grounds, together with accusations that it violates the First Modification.
TikTok declined to touch upon the ban, which was earlier reported by The Verge.
Town’s Division of Sanitation has change into an sudden TikTok darling, amassing practically 50,000 followers with movies highlighting its staff and memes tied to new trash-collection instances. New York journal’s Curbed web site praised the account final 12 months, saying that the division “comes throughout in its TikToks as a bunch of real, hardworking salt-of-the-earth people.” The account received one other enhance final 12 months when a declaration from Jessica Tisch, town’s sanitation commissioner, went viral on TikTok: “The rats are completely going to hate this announcement. However the rats don’t run this metropolis, we do.”
Whereas some TikTok viewers might grieve the lack of such accounts, they will nonetheless watch Empire State-related fare on @NYGov, the official TikTok account for New York State, which not too long ago riffed off the latest “lady dinner” development with a video extolling a “New York State lady dinner” of pizza, Hudson Valley cheese, Tate’s cookies and bagels.
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
