Maricopa County bans TikTok on government-owned electronic devices

PHOENIX (AP) — Maricopa County leaders voted unanimously Wednesday morning to prohibit TikTok on any government-owned devices.

The ban approved by the Board of Supervisors in Arizona’s most populous county will take effect immediately.

The resolution to protect the privacy and security of county data comes a month after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order for the same ban on state devices.

It is the first county in Arizona to take this step, Supervisor Thomas Galvin said.

TikTok is a subsidiary of a Chinese technology company, ByteDance. Galvin says the risk was too great that the app can collect county data that can easily be requested by the Chinese government.

“Public servants must be held to a higher standard,” Galvin said.

In April, Arizona’s three largest public universities also announced they would forbid the use of TikTok on school-owned devices.