5 US states are banning TikTok from government phones

Two years after Donald Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to ban TikTok in the US, state governments are trying to clamp down on the Chinese-born app.

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, Texas banned TikTok from government devices, becoming the fifth state to do so—and the fourth in the past week. Nebraska outlawed TikTok from government devices in August 2020, around the same time the Trump administration was attempting to ban the app altogether in the US. This week brought four new entrants: Maryland, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas, each of which cited TikTok’s Chinese ownership as a national security risk.