Maryland has become the latest U.S. state to ban TikTok from government devices, following in the footsteps of South Dakota and South Carolina.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, announced the emergency cybersecurity directive in a statement on Dec. 6.
The governor cited an unacceptable level of cybersecurity risk to the state, potential cyber-espionage and surveillance of government entities, as well as inappropriate collection of sensitive personal information.
Hogan’s emergency directive also bans the use of certain Chinese and Russian-influenced products.
As well as TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, the ban covers China’s Huawei Technologies and partially state-owned technology company, ZTE Corp….