CLEVELAND — The federal government is considering a ban on TikTok, and a growing number of states, including Ohio, have already forbidden the use of the app on government-owned devices.

U.S. officials have raised concerns over security risks involving TikTok given that its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. 

What You Need To Know

  • The federal government is considering a nationwide ban against TikTok

  • The government sites security concerns

  • The federal government has also already banned the app on its devices

  • Ohio has also already banned TikTok from being used on state-owned devices

The federal government has also already banned the app on its devices.

In January, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also issued an executive order banning TikTok on devices used by government employees. The same goes for any other Chinese-owned apps.

The governor’s executive order cites concerns the Chinese Communist Party is using TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps for “intelligence gathering” purposes.

Ohio is not the only state with a TikTok ban. Several others, including New Jersey, also made a similar move recently.

“In a lot of these cases, especially social media, information about you is collected, and sliced, and diced and monetized," C. Matthew Curtin, a cybersecurity expert and founder of Interhack Corporation, previously told Spectrum News. “The idea with these apps is to get you to engage with them so that information can be collected about you and about your behavior.”

TikTok continues to deny sharing U.S. user data with the Chinese government. 

“It’s a little jarring,” said Stefan Johnson, regarding a possible nationwide ban on TikTok. Johnson, an Ohio resident, currently has more than 7.5 million followers on the app. “At first, I just kind of brushed it off because we’ve been down this road a few years ago and nothing really happened. But, it seems like things should be taken a lot more seriously this go around.”

Johnson said he understands, though, the reason behind the proposed ban and security risk concerns.

“We have to be cognizant of how much information we’re putting out there,” he said, though not more concerned about security risks on TikTok versus other social media platforms. “I am not more worried about TikTok that I am about Facebook or YouTube taking my information.”

Lord Paris France, a TikTok user, uses his videos to make people laugh.

“I always like pushing comedy to make people feel better,” he said, hoping his platform for comedic relief doesn’t disappear. “I feel kind of sad that they’re talking about banning it.”

Like Johnson, he said he’s not more concerned about security on TikTok than any other social media platform. 

“I could sit here and talk about Cheerios. It is going to pop up on my Facebook feed later,” he said.

TikTok, meanwhile, has said it’s spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts, but for some lawmakers, it’s not to keep the app here in America.

“I feel like the powers to be are always going to find a reason to have a problem with the current situation unless it’s just completely abolished,” said Johnson.

Related Stories