News Desk
ISLAMABAD/OAKLAND: Two more US states, Louisiana and West Virginia, also imposed a ban on the use of the popular social media service TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
The US federal government has already banned the video-sharing app over alleged concern that China could use it to track Americans and censor content.
Access to TikTok blocked
Of the 50 US states, some 19 have partially blocked access on government computers to TikTok and most of the restrictions had been imposed within the last two weeks.
Last week, some US Congress members proposed a nationwide ban on TikTok. Global countries such as India have already banned the use of the social media app.
In a statement, Jamf Holding Corp that sells software to organizations to enable filtering and security steps on iPhones and other Apple devices said that its government customers had gradually blocked access to the social media app since the middle of the current year.
About 65 per cent of attempted connections to the social media app were blocked earlier this month on devices managed by Jamf Holding Corp’s public sector customers worldwide, including school districts and various other agencies. This was up from 10 per cent of TikTok connections being blocked in June.
TikTok statement
In a statement, the social media app said it was disappointing that so many US states were jumping on the political bandwagon to enforce policies based on unfounded falsehoods about the social media app that would have nothing to do with the national security of the United States.
