Planned bill would ban TikTok app on state-issued devices

State Rep. Gene Ward plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session to prohibit the wildly popular TikTok app from state-issued devices, part of a national push intended to prevent breaches of sensitive information to China.

Ward wants to reduce access to information on Hawaii-issued cellphones, computers and other devices that potentially would make them accessible to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to Ward.

“TikTok, by obligation with Byte­Dance, has to report to the CCP,” Ward (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley) told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Any company with any money or connection with any part of the economy has got to report to the CCP.”

Nationally, FBI Director Christopher Wray has expressed national security concerns about TikTok, saying that China could use the app to collect data on its users that could be used for traditional espionage operations, The Associated Press reported.

Congress approved a ban on TikTok from federal devices on Dec. 23, Forbes reported. Other states also banned TikTok on government-issued devices.

“For the sake of the nation, for the sake of not giving the Communist Party information about how much money I owe on my mortgage, or my medical condition, or who I am related to or not related to, or my surfing that I do on my computer or my phone should be known to people,” Ward said.

Ward estimates that 200 million people already may have had their personal information exposed through TikTok, particularly younger users who heavily rely on social media.

“I know there’s been some pushback by younger legislators,” Ward said. “They don’t see the bigger picture. The bigger picture is the only way to look at it, and that’s what national security is.”

But Sen. Angus McKelvey (D, West Maui-Maalaea-South Maui) believes that a TikTok ban is unnecessary in Hawaii because the app is already prohibited on state government devices.

“TikTok is an unauthorized use on government phones,” said McKelvey, chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee. “Government employees shouldn’t be using TikTok anyway.”

McKelvey believes that Ward’s concerns do not need to be addressed through state law, but “better handled through a letter to the director of the governor’s office, or the director of the agencies and or a resolution calling upon state agencies to review TikTok usage.”

“I would assume, like other state equipment, (government employees) wouldn’t be able to install the TikTok app to begin with,” McKelvey said.

Ryan Ozawa, a Honolulu Star-Advertiser tech columnist, accused Ward of political posturing.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous,” said Ozawa, who is also Pacific news editor for a crypto and Web3 news site called Decrypt. “But I can’t dismiss that there is reason for concern. I think that there should be a level of caution involved with any application that you use for sharing information.”

Ozawa uses TikTok but acknowledges he is older than TikTok’s target demographic.

“I think if you have a message that you need to get out, you need to go where the people are,” Ozawa said. “For better or worse, a lot of people are on TikTok.”

Ward said in a statement that his “bill will give the Hawaii State Government an additional layer of protection of what is currently a huge hole in our digital armor.”

Ward then told the Star-Advertiser, “You know, the irony of all this is if you’re in the government working with their computer and their phone, why should you be on TikTok watching people do exotic dances? The point is you should not be wasting government taxpayers’ money playing around with TikTok while you’re on the job.”