From law enforcement to students, who is banned from using TikTok in Texas?

Gov. Greg Abbott announced a statewide plan for banning social media app TikTok on state-issued devices Monday.

In a Dec. 7 letter addressed to state agency heads, Abbott said the video-sharing app — owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. — could potentially give sensitive information to the Chinese government.

“While TikTok has claimed that it stores U.S. data within the U.S., the company admitted in a letter to Congress that China-based employees can have access to that U.S. data,” Abbott said in the letter. “It has also been reported that ByteDance planned to use TikTok location information to surveil individual American citizens.”

Texas is one of 27 states that has issued some form of prohibition of the app on state devices.

How is the TikTok ban enforced?

One of the first objectives of the Texas plan is to prohibit the download and use of the app on any state-issued device or personal device used for state business.

Security controls allowed for state-issued devices would include:

• Restrict access to “app stores” or non-authorized software repositories to prevent the installation of unauthorized applications

• Maintain the ability to remotely wipe non-compliant or compromised mobile devices

• Maintain the ability to remotely uninstall unauthorized software from mobile devices

• Deploy secure baseline configurations for mobile devices, determined by the agency

Agencies would also be authorized to prevent the installation of banned software on personal devices used for state business, according to the plan.

The plan also outlines restrictions to prevent the use of prohibited technologies on state agency networks. This includes the use of any banned software on personal devices connected to state agency networks.

Are there exceptions to the ban?

The statewide plan allows agencies to provide access to prohibited technologies through a separate network, with the approval of the agency head. Exceptions for law-enforcement investigations or other legitimate business uses have to be made by the agency heads.

Devices given exceptions can only be used for the specific exception and only on non-state or specifically designated separate networks. The plan also states cameras and microphones should also be disabled when the device is not in use for its intended purpose.

Institutions of higher education — state colleges and universities — may make an exception to accommodate student use of a state email address provided by the university in their policy. This exception would only apply to the student’s personal device that is privately owned or leased by the student or student’s family and includes network security considerations.

When will state agencies ban TikTok?

Each agency is required to develop and submit its own security policy to support the implementation of this plan by Feb. 15 to the Department of Public Safety.

What other software will be banned?

Prohibited software, apps and developers listed in the state plan include:

• TikTok

• Kaspersky

• ByteDance Ltd.

• Tencent Holdings Ltd.

• Alipay

• CamScanner

• QQ Wallet

• SHAREit

• VMate

• WeChat

• WeChat Pay

• WPS Office