Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday says the state is moving forward with banning TikTok on all state-issued devices.
A model plan announced Monday aims "to guide state agencies on managing personal and state-issued devices used to conduct state business," a news release read.
Late last year, Republican Gov. Abbott ordered state agencies to ban employees from downloading or using TikTok on any government-issued devices. Monday's announcement outlined objectives “to protect Texas’ sensitive information and critical infrastructure from potential threats.”
"It’s critical that state agencies are protected from the Chinese Communist Party as they work on behalf of Texans," Abbott tweeted Monday.
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State agencies will have until Feb. 15 to draft their own policies to enforce the ban.
“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," Abbott said in a statement. "Other prohibited technologies listed in the statewide model plan also produce a similar threat to the security of Texans. 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."
The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources developed a plan with several bullet points:
- Ban and prevent the download or use of TikTok and prohibited technologies on any state-issued device identified in the statewide plan. This includes all state-issued cell phones, laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and other devices of capable of internet connectivity. Each agency’s IT department must strictly enforce this ban.
- Prohibit employees or contractors from conducting state business on prohibited technology-enabled personal devices.
- Identify sensitive locations, meetings, or personnel within an agency that could be exposed to prohibited technology-enabled personal devices. Prohibited technology-enabled personal devices will be denied entry or use in these sensitive areas.
- Implement network-based restrictions to prevent the use of prohibited technologies on agency networks by any device.
- Work with information security professionals to continuously update the list of prohibited technologies.
Click here to read the full plan or read it in the document below.
Texas News
News from around the state of Texas.
