FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) – Kentucky is on the way to joining a growing list of states that are banning TikTok on government devices. State lawmakers have major concerns the app threatens national security.
What was once thought as a way to connect young voters to what’s happening in Frankfort and for lawmakers to show more colorful sides to their personalities, the app is now a red flag in the halls of government.
“It has been reported by multiple news sources and confirmed that TikTok mines huge amounts of private data, which the Chinese government, a foreign adversary of the United States, would have access to,” bill sponsor Sen. Robby Mills (R-Henderson) said on the Senate floor.
Rumors have persisted for years the app could pose a national security risk, but it wasn’t until an official warning by the FBI in December states began to act. The app is now banned in more than half of state governments across the country. Shortly after Mills filed his bill, other Kentucky branches including the Governor’s Office and Legislative Research Commission took similar steps to ban the app in their own departments.
“We need to protect the data that exists on state government devices, and one very practical way of doing this is to remove a known data mining app from all the state of Kentucky’s digital devices and computers as this bill does,” Mills said.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously, 33-0, with no debate. It now begins its journey through the House.
