Democratic stronghold Washington state may join GOP’s TikTok bans

The US state of Washington is considering banning the use of TikTok for government business, potentially extending a Republican-led campaign against the Chinese-owned app to one of the most liberal parts of the United States.

Washington state would become the first Democratic stronghold to ban TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, over data privacy and national security concerns if it prohibits the use of the app on government devices.

According to the Qazet.az at least 19 states, including Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, New Hampshire, Maryland, North Dakota and Utah, have banned or restricted the use of the app on government devices over data privacy and national concerns.

All of those states have Republican governors, except for Louisiana, a conservative stronghold, which has only restricted use of the app on devices under the purview of the Secretary of State.

On Monday, Louisiana’s Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin called on Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards to ban the app on all state government devices.

The proposals in Washington state, where Democrats control the governorship and both branches of the state legislature, were revealed in emails Al Jazeera obtained after filing public records requests with all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.