LANCASTER, Pa. — On Monday, Lancaster County announced a countywide ban on TikTok for all its employees, becoming the first county in the Commonwealth to do so.
“We want to make sure both our employees and consumers, who interact with county government, are protected," said Josh Parsons, a Lancaster County Commissioner.
Commissioner Parsons says the decision is a proactive measure to protect the county from cybersecurity threats. TikTok and its Chinese-parent company, ByteDance, have come under fire for its collection of user data.
The company's actions have prompted the White House to announce a ban on all federal devices.
“We believe TikTok is a threat, we believe that it does harvest data, and sends that back to, quite frankly, the Chinese government," said Parsons.
Back in December, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department instituted a similar ban on the app. Treasurer Stacy Garrity says the decision was an easy call in order to protect the nearly $150 billion in state assets.
“We have a tremendous amount of personal data we’re responsible for protecting," said Garrity. "And so, we’re protecting taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
Over at the State Capitol, York Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill introduced a bill that would ban TikTok from all state-owned devices.
In a statement, Phillips-Hill called on lawmakers to step up and protect Pennsylvania’s sensitive information.
“I’m hoping that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that it’s a national security issue and get behind that legislation," said Garrity.
To date, 25 states have banned the app for state employees.