TikTok ban clears NC Senate, would also block WeChat, Telegram

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper already signed an executive order banning TikTok on state government devices. This bill goes further, targeting more apps and also banning them on government networks like university WiFi.

Posted 9:44 p.m. Mar 21, 2023 — Updated 1:03 p.m. Mar 22, 2023

Will Doran

, WRAL state government reporter

Several popular apps, with well over a billion combined users worldwide, could soon be banned in North Carolina schools and state government offices.

The state Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to ban TikTok, WeChat and Telegram on all state-owned devices and internet networks.

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, already signed an executive order banning TikTok on state devices. But this bill, goes further. In addition to banning WeChat and Telegram as well, it also extends the ban to not just government devices but also government networks.

That means that even students and state government workers using their personal phones or computers still wouldn’t be able to access the apps if using their work’s or school’s WiFi, for example.

No lawmakers spoke either for or against the bill before it passed. It now must pass the House before going to Cooper to potentially sign it into law.

The idea of such bans have gained traction in recent months both nationally and internationally. Both TikTok and WeChat are Chinese apps, and concern has grown in recent months over TikTok in particular.

TikTok is one of the most popular apps in America, especially among younger people. It lets users share funny videos, show off dance moves and more. At the same time, multiple media reports have claimed the app’s parent company, ByteDance, has improperly accessed users’ data and even secretly tracked the movements of certain users the Chinese government may want to keep tabs on.

Members of the U.S. military have already been banned from usingTikTok for years on their official devices, and Congress has floated the possibility of banning the app nationwide — and not just on government-owned devices, but for everyone in the country.

As for the other apps in North Carolina’s crosshairs, WeChat is the main messaging app in China, so its ban would especially affect people living here who have family in China, or who do business there.

Telegram, an encrypted messaging service, is often used by protesters in authoritarian countries to avoid government surveillance of their communications. It has already been banned in many dictatorships for that reason. It’s facing criticism now in the U.S., perhaps due to malware attacks carried out via the app in recent years.

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