Abbott expands Tiktok crackdown

New plan would require state agencies to identify areas of sensitive information, data

Two months after banning Tiktok from state-issued devices, including on college campuses, Gov. Greg Abbott followed up on Monday with a more detailed security plan to further crackdown on the popular social media application.

Under a 9-page security plan, state employees and contractors would be barred from conducting state business with devices that have Tiktok on them, such as personally owned cell phones. That includes barring the ability to access voicemails and emails. Further workers or contractors could be denied entry from “sensitive” locations if they have Tiktok or another prohibited technology on their personal devices.

“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,” Abbott said.

The governor’s move continues a nationwide push by politicians who warn that because Tiktok’s parent company is based in China, the vast amount of data the company collects on its users could ultimately be accessed by the Chinese government and used for espionage.

Tiktok, launched internationally in 2017, is owned by Bytedance, a Beijing-based company. It is now estimated to have 1 billion users worldwide and has been downloaded more than 200 million times in the United States. More than 60 percent of the app’s users are under 30 years old.

“We’re sorry to see the unintended consequences of these rushed Tiktok bans — policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity — beginning to impact universities’ ability to share information, recruit students and build communities around athletic teams, student groups, campus publications, and more,” Tiktok spokesperson Jamal Brown said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle.

While Republican lawmakers have been among the most vocal critics of Tiktok, the Biden administration has also been concerned. Late last year, FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers that the Chinese government could use the app

to influence users or control their devices.

Former President Donald Trump has pushed to force Tiktok to sell their U.S. operations to an American company. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have both reported that the Biden administration has been reviewing a host of options to restrict Tiktok's access to American data.

Tiktok officials have tried to allay those concerns by storing U.S. user data in facilities in the U.S. and Singapore. They said their Virginia data center “includes physical and logical safety controls such as gated entry points, firewalls, and intrusion detection technologies.”

In addition, they said they've been working with Oracle, headquartered in Austin, to send 100 percent of U.S. user traffic through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

“We know we are among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data,” Tiktok officials said in a statement released to reporters last year.

With heightened tensions with the Chinese government over a range of issues, Texas politicians have gone further, calling on the state to bar Chinese businesses and citizens from buying any land in Texas. That tension was on full display over the last few days as a suspected Chinese spy balloon floated across the United States before eventually being shot down by a U.S. fighter jet when it drifted over the Atlantic Ocean.

The plan outlined by Abbott on Monday would require agencies to identify sensitive areas where confidential information is discussed — such as information technology configurations, criminal justice information or financial data.

Workers, contractors and other guests would be prevented from entering those rooms if they are carrying devices with the Tik Tok app on them. Agencies would have to have locked storage areas to place phones, laptops or tablets.

“It is critical that state agencies and employees are protected from the vulnerabilities presented by the use of this app and other prohibited technologies as they work on behalf of their fellow Texans,” Abbott said.