When Maryland turned the newest US state to ban using TikTok on authorities gadgets and networks final month, cybersecurity officers within the state of Connecticut turned to the FBI for steerage.

They wished to know if the FBI had further data to help a ban of their state amid dire warnings by the legislation enforcement company’s management and Republican governors that the Chinese language-owned app posed critical threats to privateness and nationwide safety.

“Good morning gents. We’re on the lookout for any suggestions on TikTok after Maryland moved to ‘ban’ its use,” Jeff Brown, the chief data safety officer for Connecticut, stated in an electronic mail to a contact on the FBI on December 7.

“Our logic is captured under, however we’d be enthusiastic about your ideas. Respect any suggestions,” Brown stated within the electronic mail, which was additionally despatched to contacts on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) and the Division of Homeland Safety.

Brown included in his message an electronic mail chain wherein he and Mark Raymond, Connecticut’s chief data officer (CIO), expressed settlement that Maryland’s ban gave the impression to be a case of “overreach”.

Supplied an opportunity to supply further data in help of a ban, the FBI contact declined.

“I requested certainly one of my analysts to succeed in out to our HQ,” the FBI agent, who leads a staff in Connecticut targeted on cybercrime, stated in an electronic mail to Brown.

“She emailed me in the direction of the tip of the day to say that she couldn’t discover proof that we had any further data to share.”

Maryland and different states that had introduced TikTok bans appeared to have “based mostly their selections on information studies and different open supply details about China normally, not particular to Tik Tok,” the FBI agent quoted his analyst as saying.

“Sorry we don’t have extra to supply,” the FBI agent stated.

The CISA contact, a cybersecurity adviser for Connecticut, informed Brown he had “no further” data and would suggest deferring to the steerage of the FBI.

Al Jazeera obtained the Connecticut state authorities emails, together with emails from a number of different state governments, after submitting public information requests with the 50 US states and the District of Columbia.

Raymond, the Connecticut CIO, in the end decided that the chance of TikTok was “low” based mostly on the truth that, amongst different standards, he had acquired no data suggesting Tiktok had misused knowledge, issues in regards to the app appeared to don’t have anything to do with the platform itself, and a ban might “drive further Chinese language cyber exercise and curiosity in Connecticut.”

He really helpful that Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, “take no motion right now” however proceed to watch the scenario.

When contacted by Al Jazeera for remark, Raymond stated defending state networks is an “extraordinarily excessive precedence for us”.

“We usually assessment safety threats in opposition to the state and act as warranted,” he stated. “We’re supportive of nationwide motion on matters that will threaten our nationwide safety and proceed to work with all our companions on probably the most acceptable suggestions for our state.

The episode in Connecticut, which has not been beforehand reported, stands in distinction to the dire public warnings FBI Director Christopher Wray has made about TikTok.

Wray has repeatedly warned that China might use TikTok to “manipulate content material” to hold out affect operations and steal private knowledge for espionage functions.

“All of these items are within the palms of a authorities that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very a lot at odds with what’s in the perfect pursuits of the USA,” Wray informed a College of Michigan occasion final month. “That ought to concern us.”

In response to a request for remark, the FBI Nationwide Press Workplace directed Al Jazeera to previous feedback by Wray wherein he stated the company is advising the Committee on International Funding in the USA (CFIUS) amid its discussions with TikTok on methods to deal with nationwide safety fears and expressed concern in regards to the Chinese language authorities forcing firms at hand over delicate knowledge.

TikTok’s mum or dad firm ByteDance, which has its headquarters in Beijing and is integrated within the Cayman Islands, argues that the FBI’s warnings in regards to the app relate to purely hypothetical issues and no proof has been offered of wrongdoing.

ByteDance has lengthy insisted it might by no means share consumer knowledge with the Chinese language authorities and says it’s working to deal with hypothetical nationwide safety dangers as a part of a deal it’s negotiating with CFIUS.

“As we now have stated earlier than, these state and college bans usually are not pushed by particular intelligence about TikTok and are pushed by misinformation about our firm and our service,” TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter informed Al Jazeera.

“We stand prepared to completely transient state and native officers about our complete plan to deal with nationwide safety issues, plans developed below the oversight of our nation’s high nationwide safety businesses.”

Whilst bans on TikTok collect steam, tech specialists — and even some authorities officers, as within the case of Connecticut — acknowledge there may be little technical proof to justify the extent of worry and nervousness the video-streaming platform, one of many world’s hottest apps, has impressed.

As a substitute, most arguments for limiting the app have rested on broader distrust of Beijing, together with fears the Chinese language authorities might entry customers’ private knowledge or manipulate public opinion for nefarious ends.

“We haven’t seen any proof that TikTok is a better danger than another social media platform,” Cliff Lampe, a professor of knowledge on the College of Michigan, informed Al Jazeera.

“The only concern expressed is that its important proprietor is a Chinese language firm — despite the fact that most TikTok site visitors within the US is managed on US servers. The logic is that the Chinese language authorities might importune TikTok for personal consumer knowledge.”

Whereas the Trump administration first put TikTok within the crosshairs in 2020 with proposals for an outright ban, efforts to stymie the app gained momentum after South Dakota introduced its ban in November final yr.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem claimed the Chinese language Communist Get together used the app to “manipulate the American folks” and stated her state would don’t have any half within the “intelligence gathering operations of countries who hate us”.

Amongst Republicans, the occasion affiliation of Noem and different governors that rolled out early bans seems to have had some affect in persuading different states to comply with swimsuit.

In December final yr, the Republican Governors Public Coverage Committee (RGPPC), a public coverage organisation for selling conservative coverage on the state stage, despatched out a publication to Republican-led state governments highlighting latest bans in South Dakota, South Carolina, Maryland and Texas.

“Inside the previous week, 4 Republican governors banned or restricted the social media platform, TikTok, on state gadgets,” Zach Swint, a senior coverage adviser for the RGPPC, wrote within the December 7 publication.

In North Dakota, which banned TikTok on state gadgets on December 13, the publication prompted the chief of employees to Governor Doug Burgum to request state cybersecurity officers to “shortly decide if we now have any state gadgets utilizing TikTok and if we should always take into account an motion like different governors under”.

“Please expedite this and ship a suggestion as shortly as doable,” Jace Beehler stated in an electronic mail dated December 8.

Lampe, the College of Michigan professor, stated that states seem to have appeared to one another for classes on the right way to deal with TiKTok “given their lack of awareness within the space”.

“The hazard of that, nevertheless, is that if the laws is misguided then it is going to replicate itself shortly with little essential examination. My sense is that a part of that is that legislatures are principally run by older folks, who might even see a youth-oriented social platform as banal, so the hazard of being too strict is low.”

Bipartisan issues

At the very least 28 US states, together with Texas, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, have launched bans on TikTok for presidency gadgets to date. Whereas a majority are led by Republican governors, Democratic-led states corresponding to Wisconsin and North Carolina have additionally rolled out bans, which have more and more attracted bipartisan help.

In December, US President Joe Biden signed laws containing a ban for federal authorities gadgets, whereas a variety of Republican politicians are pushing laws to ban the app outright. Universities in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia and Iowa have in latest weeks additionally introduced bans for official gadgets.

Marc Faddoul, codirector of AI Forensics, a European non-profit that researches the mechanics of TikTok, stated that issues that the app has entry to giant quantities of private knowledge and could possibly be used to sway public opinion are each cheap and mired in hypocrisy.

“The issues, I believe, are respectable however I believe the US authorities’s place is hypocritical as a result of the identical concern is true for another nation with respect to the American platforms,” Faddoul informed Al Jazeera, including that additionally it is essential to acknowledge that the US authorities has extra respect for democratic norms than its Chinese language counterpart.

“The US authorities might and has prior to now leverage their energy, their home firms for nationwide safety pursuits and will within the context of a battle make use of it probably to filter to advertise particular kinds of data.”

Faddoul stated discussions ought to focus extra on defending consumer knowledge throughout the business as an alternative of simply TikTok alone.

“I do consider that a greater method is to do one thing that’s systematic for the entire business by way of knowledge safety legal guidelines,” he stated.

Whilst a majority of US states have rolled out TikTok bans, some state officers have expressed ambivalence in regards to the app.

In some circumstances, state governments have carved out exemptions in recognition of the app’s usefulness for some official enterprise.

In Utah, which banned TikTok on state gadgets on December 12, officers on the Division of Juvenile Justice and Youth Providers sought an exemption to permit some employees to entry the app, emails obtained by Al Jazeera via a public information request present.

In South Carolina, one of many first states to announce a ban, officers retroactively launched modifications to permit “recognized” legislation enforcement personnel to entry TikTok, based on emails obtained through a public information request.

In New Jersey, the place Democrats management the governorship and each branches of the legislature, the state’s high cybersecurity official final month expressed a desire for limiting the app to “separate and remoted gadgets” reasonably than a complete ban, based on emails revealed by Al Jazeera final month. New Jersey, like most different Democratic-led states, has but to publicly announce restrictions on the app.

Some states seem to have most well-liked a quiet method to limiting using TikTok.

In Michigan, Caleb Buhs, the state’s director of communications, informed colleagues TikTok can be added to a listing of social media platforms not authorised for official use from the next month, emails present.

Michigan has not but introduced a ban on the app and Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s governor, continues to function a TikTok account the place she usually posts movies.

Sara Collins, an knowledgeable in knowledge safety and shopper privateness on the non-profit Public Data, stated TikTok’s hyperlinks to China deserve scrutiny, however the controversy across the app has distracted from the broader lack of privateness protections within the web age.

“Given China’s authoritarian authorities and its management of its companies imply that TikTok rightly deserves further scrutiny,” Collins informed Al Jazeera.

“Nevertheless, the discourse surrounding the TikTok bans have principally moved away from addressing particular dangers and turn out to be a handy method for politicians to sign they’re anti-China. TikTok, like all social media platforms, collects huge quantities of information about its customers. As we now have seen with different main tech firms, this fixed surveillance could cause hurt.”