Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy Bans TikTok on New Jersey’s Government Devices over Security Concerns

Democrat New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that he issued a cybersecurity directive to “prohibit the use of high-risk software and services,” including the Chinese social media app TikTok, on state government devices over security concerns.

Murphy’s directive would make it so “high-risk software and services” are not allowed on state-provided or managed devices for essentially all full- or part-time employees, temporary workers, volunteers, interns, and contractors spanning across all departments, agencies, commissions, and other instrumentalities of the Executive Branch.

“Bolstering cybersecurity is critical to protecting the overall safety and welfare of our State,” Murphy said in a statement.

“The proactive and preventative measures that we are implementing today will ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and safety of information assets managed by New Jersey State government,” He continued. “This decisive action will ensure the cybersecurity of the State is unified against actors who may seek to divide us.”

The list, managed in a collaborative effort between the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC) and Office of Information Technology (OIT), would name all of the technology vendors, software products, and services deemed unacceptable due to the level of cybersecurity risk.

The directive included a list of required actions that applicable agencies have to follow, such as removing any of the referenced software products on devices, implementing network-based restrictions to prevent access or the use of the software products, and measures to restrict the installation of any of the software products.

In addition to TikTok, some of the “high-risk software and services,” which also includes anyone doing business under said companies, are Huawei Technologies, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Tencent Holdings LTD, WeChat, QQ, QQ Wallet, AliPay, Alibaba.com Mobile Apps, Hytera, ZTE Corporation, ByteDance Ltd., and Kaspersky Lab.

On the state level, numerous governors have announced that their states would also ban TikTok from state government devices over the last year and especially over the last several months. Some of the states include Ohio, Georgia, Montana, Alabama, and Iowa.

And on the federal level, a Republican-led Senate-passed piece of legislation was added to the omnibus spending bill that passed Congress last month and was signed into law, which would ban the Chinese social media app TikTok from U.S. government devices.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.