By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York Metropolis on Wednesday banned TikTok on government-owned gadgets, citing safety issues, becoming a member of quite a lot of U.S. cities and states which have put such restrictions on the brief video sharing app.

TikTok, which is utilized by greater than 150 million People and is owned by Chinese language tech large ByteDance, has confronted rising calls from U.S. lawmakers for a nationwide ban over issues about potential Chinese language authorities affect.

TikTok “posed a safety menace to the town’s technical networks,” the administration of New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams stated in a press release.

New York Metropolis businesses are required to take away the app inside 30 days and workers will lose entry to the app and its web site on city-owned gadgets and networks. New York State had already banned TikTok on state-issued cell gadgets.

TikTok stated it “has not shared, and wouldn’t share, U.S. person knowledge with the Chinese language authorities, and has taken substantial measures to guard the privateness and safety of TikTok customers.”

Prime U.S. safety officers together with FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director William Burns have stated TikTok poses a menace. Wray stated in March that China’s authorities may use TikTok to regulate software program on hundreds of thousands of gadgets and drive narratives to divide People, including the app “screams” of nationwide safety issues.

Former President Donald Trump in 2020 sought to bar new downloads of TikTok, however a sequence of courtroom selections blocked the ban from taking impact.

Many U.S. states and cities have restricted TikTok on authorities gadgets. Montana just lately handed a invoice banning the app throughout the state, a rule set to enter impact on Jan. 1 and being challenged legally.

Near half of American adults help a ban on TikTok, in accordance with a brand new Reuters/Ipsos survey launched on Wednesday.