Gov. McMaster wants TikTok permanently removed from all state-owned phones, computers – Charleston Post Courier
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Updated: December 6, 2022 @ 9:42 am
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Assistant Columbia bureau chief
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COLUMBIA — Gov. Henry McMaster wants to block access to TikTok from all state-owned cellphones and computers, saying the popular video sharing app should be permanently removed from devices to protect South Carolina residents and businesses.
McMaster directed the state’s Department of Administration, which oversees computer and internet services in use across much of state government — but not all — to block the app from devices it manages.
The Republican governor also asked for a list of the state agencies still not participating in South Carolina’s centralized information technology system.
His Dec. 5 letter went out three days after FBI Director Chris Wray raised national security concerns about the Chinese government’s control over TikTok, a Beijing-based private company.
It also followed last week’s executive order by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, that banned public employees and contractors from downloading the app on devices that state owns.
“Protecting our state’s critical cyber infrastructure from foreign and domestic threats is key to ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of our citizens and businesses,” McMaster wrote in the letter to Administration Department Director Marcia Adams. “Federal law enforcement and national security officials have warned that TikTok poses a clear and present danger to its users.”
Adams’ agency is part of the governor’s Cabinet, meaning McMaster is her boss.
The agency has already blocked employees from accessing the TikTok website through department-provided internet, which most agencies use.
Next it will block the app from the nearly 4,000 laptops, cellphones and tablets it manages, according to the department.
A spokeswoman could not immediately answer questions on how long it will take to block TikTok access on them.
Overall, less than 10 percent of all state-supplied mobile devices are managed by the Department of Administration. The total for all such items self-reported to the department in a recent annual survey was 51,544. That number does not include public colleges, the General Assembly or the state court system.
The Associated Press reported Dec. 2 that Wray said the FBI was concerned the Chinese can control the app’s recommendation algorithm “which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”
He also said China could use the app to collect data on its users that could be used for traditional espionage operations.
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray told an audience at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Those concerns are similar to ones he raised during congressional appearances last month when the issue came up. And they’re being voiced during ongoing dialogue in Washington about the app.
“If you have a state-issued cellphone that could potentially have sensitive information, we don’t need TikTok downloaded on that cellphone,” McMaster’s spokesman, Brian Symmes, told The Post and Courier.
McMaster has encouraged state agencies to use the Administration Department for computer and cybersecurity services.
“Unfortunately, there are a number of state agencies who continue to operate in a silo,” he wrote.
McMaster ended the letter seeking a list of all “state agencies for whom the department is unable to permanently block access to TikTok.”
Concerned about China’s influence over TikTok, the Trump administration in 2020 threatened to ban the app within the U.S. and pressured ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company. U.S. officials and the company are now in talks over a possible agreement that would resolve American security concerns, a process that Wray said was taking place across U.S. government agencies.
At a U.S. Senate hearing in September, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas responded to questions from members of both parties by saying that the company protects all data from American users and that Chinese government officials have no access to it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.
Assistant Columbia bureau chief
Adcox returned to The Post and Courier in October 2017 after 12 years covering the Statehouse for The Associated Press. She previously covered education for The P&C. She has also worked for The AP in Albany, N.Y., and for The Herald in Rock Hill.
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