Agencies have 30 days from the date the new TIKTOK ban went into effect to remove the app from all city-owned hardware.
New York City has joined the growing list of jurisdictions that have banned TikTok, citing the app’s ties to the Chinese government as evidence that it poses a threat to national security.
The new prohibition goes into effect immediately, and city departments have 30 days to remove the short-video software from any city-owned devices.
The NYC Cyber Command, the cyber threat reviewing authority for the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, recommended that the city government ban TikTok on state-owned devices, joining the ranks of over 27 other states like California, Washington, and Utah.
After conducting a comprehensive security analysis, New York City’s Cyber Command reportedly suggested that the program be banned from state devices.
The US House of Representatives and other non-state or federal institutions imposed TikTok bans on government devices in December; the Biden administration even asked TikTok to cut ties with the Chinese government and exclude it from corporate ownership.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, continues to deny any involvement in the breaking of critical data or information, despite the fact that the Chinese government still controls a portion of the company.
After being grilled for more than five hours by US legislators, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified calmly, hoping to reassure them that his company would never use its app to retrieve data for the Chinese government.
During the 5-hour parliamentary session, he added, “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.”