Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Feb. 6 announced a plan to ban the use of TikTok on state-issued devices.
The video-sharing app TikTok is owned and operated by ByteDance, which is a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
It has long been controversial, particularly among Republicans, for potentially enabling the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) access to the private info of Americans—including minors, who are overrepresented on the app.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a news conference in Beaumont, Texas, on Oct. 17, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Many states across the union have responded to the concern by banning TikTok on government cell phones, laptops, and tablets, citing the risk of the Chinese thereby accessing sensitive or classified data. At the end of January, Maine became the 29th U.S. state to ban TikTok from the devices of government employees….