Georgia House Committee Advances TikTok Bill

The Georgia House Homeland Security Committee passed by voice vote Wednesday a bill that would ban state employees and students from installing and using apps like TikTok on state-owned devices. Introduced by Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R), SB-93 mirrors a decision from Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who issued an order in December banning the Chinese-owned social media app on state devices. The legislation is more broad, however, as it targets any apps owned by “foreign adversaries,” as defined by the federal government and recognized by the White House. The White House’s list of foreign adversaries includes China, Russia and Iran. The bill includes a carve-out that would allow access to the platform for law enforcement, research, legislative and judicial proceedings. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) recommended the carve-out. SB-93 was discussed before the full committee last week and before a subcommittee Tuesday. Anavitarte said he had discussions with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., about congressional efforts to eliminate the app in the U.S. This conversation isn’t going away in Georgia or at the national level, said Anavitarte, calling it a national security issue. Rep. Jordan Ridley (D) asked him how common the use of TikTok and other adversarial apps is on state devices. Anavitarte said he didn’t have an exact figure but noted intelligence officials say it takes only one device to make the state vulnerable. Several panel members, including Anavitarte, mistakenly referred to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance as DanceByte.