North Dakota, Iowa ban TikTok from state-owned devices

North Dakota and Iowa have joined a growing number of U.S. states in banning the Chinese-owned short-video-sharing app TikTok from state-owned devices, citing national security concerns.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued directives prohibiting executive branch agencies from downloading the app on any government-issued equipment. Around a dozen U.S. states have taken similar actions, including Alabama and Utah this week.

TikTok has said the concerns are largely fueled by misinformation and are happy to meet with policymakers to discuss the company's practices.

"We're disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States," the company said Wednesday.

Other states taking similar actions include Texas, Maryland and South Dakota.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday unveiled bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok in the United States, ratcheting up pressure on Chinese owner ByteDance due to U.S. fears the app could be used to spy on Americans and censure content.

The legislation would block all transactions from any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia, Rubio's office said.

At a hearing last month, FBI Director Chris Wray said TikTok's U.S. operations raise national security concerns.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked the apps' use in the United States but lost a series of court battles over the measure.

The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a powerful national security body, in 2020 ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed to the Chinese government, though Bytedance has not done so.