the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to the Wall Street Journal ,one of the earliest public debates about blacklisting TikTok in the U.S. isn’t taking place in Washington. It is happening in South Dakota’s second-most populous city. The Rapid City council on Tuesday will consider a proposal to ban TikTok (TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users.) from city-owned devices and networks, and to prohibit city agencies from using the app. Championing the idea is a councilman—and potential mayoral candidate—who calls TikTok a security threat.
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Congress passed a ban on TikTok on federal employees’ work devices last month as a provision in the larger spending bill to keep federal agencies funded. Some states have followed suit with similar proposals to ban TikTok downloads on state employees’ work phones, computers and tablets.
BuzzFeed News reported in mid-June that China-based employees of TikTok’s parent company “have repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users.” The report cited leaked audio of internal company meetings, during which engineers in China discussed that they reportedly had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022. In November FBI Director Christopher Wray warned lawmakers on Capitol Hill that allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States could pose a threat to national security.
Now comes the Village of Ridgewood and a reader chimed in, “While no foreign spies await the upcoming over-development debates here in town, let’s still get rid of TikTok”
It’s time for the Village to ban TikTok on all municipal devices.
To review…
Trump wants to ban TikTok; states it is National Security Risk; says China collecting information on US citizens.
Trump vilified as Xenophobic, Racist and a threat to freedom of speech and freedom of expression and politically motivated. (and these were the “nice” comments they made)
Then..
<Biden revokes Trump's TikTok ban immediately upon coming into office
Biden is lauded as a defender of freedom, rationality and inclusiveness seeing TikTok as a harmless social media app”
Subsequently…
Biden bans TikTok on government computers and smartphones; states it is National Security Risk; says China collecting information on US citizens.
Biden lauded as a defender of freedom, rationality and inclusiveness for protecting the US government and its citizens from TikTok.
Just more of the daily, never-ending hypocrisy.
Trump wanted to ban Tick Tock in the US. Not his place to say that individuals can’t have specific software on their computer. Biden banned Tick Tock on Government devices. That’s why the ban worked.
Kaspersky’s antivirus software was developed in Russia (lots of former KGB at the company) and has been banned on federal information systems. American citizens are still free to use it.
I installed and deleted Tick Tock in 2019 because it is a waste of time and because of the Chinese Government influence.
They should ban anyone wearing a pink sports coat