New York City on Wednesday joined a wave of states and federal agencies in banning TikTok from government-owned devices based on security concerns, wiping out some popular city-run TikTok accounts in the process.
Jonah Alon, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said in a statement that the city’s cyber leadership determined the app “poses a security threat to the city’s tech networks.” City agencies must remove the app within 30 days and employees will lose access to TikTok and its website from city-owned devices and networks.
The TikTok accounts of Mr. Adams, the City Sanitation Department and the Department of Parks and Recreation updated their bios with this message: “This account was operated by the City of New York until August 2023. It is no longer monitored.”
Several government officials have restricted access to TikTok in response to concerns that the app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, could give Beijing access to sensitive user data. New York state has banned TikTok On state-issued mobile devices more than three years old, with some exceptions.
The ban has been largely confined to official devices, though the state of Montana recently passed a bill banning TikTok across the state. This rule, which is set to go into effect on January 1, has been challenged by TikTok for several reasons, including accusations that it violates the First Amendment.
TikTok declined to comment on the ban, which was earlier mentioned by The Verge.
The city’s sanitation department has become unpredictable Tik Tok Dear, amaze her nearly 50,000 followers with videos highlighting her workers and memes associated with the new garbage collection times. The Curbed website of New York magazine praised it the account Last year, he said, the department “shows up on TikToks as a group of real, hard-working people.” The account got another boost last year when an ad from Jessica Teich, the city’s sanitation commissioner, went viral on TikTok: “Rat’s going to absolutely hate this ad. But Rat’s don’t run this city, we do.”
While some TikTok viewers may mourn the loss of such accounts, they can still watch Empire State related fare on @NYGov, the official TikTok account for New York State, which recently criticized the “girl dinner” trend with video In homage to the “NY State Girls Dinner” of pizza, Hudson Valley cheese, Tate bagels, and bagels.
Michael Gold Contribute to the preparation of reports.