BILL NUMBER: S8600

SPONSOR: JACOBS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the state technology law, in relation to prohibiting
certain individuals from downloading or using TikTok on state issued
devices

 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the state technology law, in relation to prohibiting
certain individuals from downloading or using TikTok on state issued
devices

 
PURPOSE:

To amend the state technology law, in relation to prohibiting certain
individuals from downloading or using TikTok on state issued devices.

 
              

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill is the title, the "No TikTok on Government
Devices Act."

Section two of the bill adds new Subdivision 22 to Section 103 of State
Technology Law, to prohibit the download and utilization of the applica-
tion, TikTok or any successor application developed by Chinese
controlled corporation, ByteDance, on any State issued electronic
device.

Section three of the bill is the effective date; the thirtieth day after
it is signed into law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

New York is facing a quiet invasion of our data that could permanently
weaken this State's security. New York needs to take decisive action to
protect New Yorkers and state government interests from this colossal
threat from a foreign entity, the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Several years ago (2016) in China, an application called Douyin joined
the growing world of social media. Douyin has significantly grown to
become one of the fastest growing social media platforms in history.
Users in North America would recognize this application as TikTok.
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to create and upload
short videos that are cadenced with music. The application facially
seems harmless and has become a pillar of many individual's social media
personas. However, the vast majority of users do not realize that down-
loading TikTok gives the PRC, an oppressive regime, access to the data
that TikTok collects. That data includes the user's IP address,
location, browsing and search history, phone applications, file systems,
and everything the user types. ("TikTok."  Privacy Policy).

The PRC's authority to access to the data collected by TikTok stems from
the fact that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is located in Beijing,
China where companies are obligated to work with the PRC in intelligence
collection efforts. In addition to this obligation to comply with a
regime that actively seeks to expand its data collecting power, l'ikTok
has a demonstrated history of untrustworthiness. This history includes
TikTok's censoring in the United States, refusal to testify in Congress,
as well as several corporate board members that are also members of the
Chinese Communist Party.

Due to the obvious untrustworthiness of TikTok and the nature of the
data that it collects, it is more than reasonable to conclude that this
application should not downloaded or used on government issued electron-
ic device. This was logic used when federal agencies including the
Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the State Department and
the Transportation Security Administration took action to combat this
silent invasion of American privacy, and banned the use of TikTok by
their employees and service members on government issued devices. This
bill would follow the lead of the federal government by banning all
state employees from using this application on state-issued devices.
This is legislation is sensible and common sense step towards bringing
our State closer to fulfilling its duty to protect New Yorkers.

We must not shy away from the fact that this is an invasion. An invasion
of privacy that sadly, has been very successful, thus far.  New York,
along with the rest of the United States, must work together to defend
our privacy and security interests.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become law.