ODESSA, Texas — The City of Odessa has moved forward with a policy prohibiting TikTok from being installed or used on government devices.
TikTok is a popular social media platform that is based out of China, but it has recently been faced with accusations of being tied to China's Communist Party. It also had ties to collecting user's data without their consent.
The policy was initially brought up by Odessa City Manager John Beckmeyer. According to him, Texas legislature recently moved to ban the app due to their China ties and other concerns.
“It was actually passed by the 87th legislature of the State of Texas that no government entity within the State of Texas would install or use TikTok on government devices," Beckmeyer said. "The City of Odessa agrees with that.”
Beckmeyer said discussions to limit TikTok on government owned devices had been in the works for a while, but were solidified by the state’s actions.
“It was brought up to be one of our ordinances just in the last month or so, but we assumed it by practice as soon as it went into effect I believe on September," Beckmeyer said.
As far as government employee's personal devices go, they can have whatever apps they want on there, TikTok included. However, the rules are stricter on any government phones.
“You can do what you want to with your personal cell phones, but you don't want to use those same TikTok videos in any kind of government business," Beckmeyer said.
For now, the City of Odessa doesn’t have a way to enforce the rules, but they will be keeping a close eye on what’s being posted by their employees.
"We don't have an act of enforcement of it, but if you're doing TikTok and you're putting it out there on TikTok, if you're doing the videos, you'll be asked to delete them and to remove them," Beckmeyer said.
This new policy will go into effect immediately. As far as the people who already have TikTok downloaded on their government devices, the city made it clear that those employees will have to delete the app.