Indiana sues TikTok, US states expand restrictions

TikTok is facing more and more political restrictions in the United States.
Indiana, the United States, recently filed a lawsuit against TikTok.
A number of states have previously announced that they are prohibited from viewing TikTok on electronic devices owned by the state government, but Indiana is the first state to sue TikTok in the United States.
On December 7 local time, the Indiana Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita's office announced that TikTok did not disclose the possibility of the Chinese government obtaining sensitive user information, which violated the state's consumer protection law.
In addition, the Rokita office also said in the lawsuit filed on the 7th that TikTok failed to effectively prevent children from contacting explicit content.
The purpose of these proceedings is to seek an emergency injunction against TikTok and impose financial penalties.
On the same day, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered all state government agencies to ban the use of TikTok on state government electronic devices.
One day ago, the governor of Maryland announced that the use of TikTok and WeChat on the platform of the administrative department of the state government was prohibited, on the grounds that "it poses an unacceptable threat to the state's network security".
In the past period, in addition to the above two states, North Dakota and South Dakota have also announced that they are prohibited from browsing TikTok on electronic devices owned by the state government.
According to the Washington Post, Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that "we do not comment on the pending litigation, but the safety, privacy and security of our community are our top priorities".
Last month, Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said that TikTok's operations in the United States raised national security concerns.
In response to Christopher Ray's remarks, at a regular press conference on November 16, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said that spreading false information and using it as an excuse to suppress relevant Chinese enterprises has become a common practice of the United States.
China firmly opposes this.
We hope that the US side will take a more responsible approach and earnestly respect and abide by fair, open and non discriminatory international rules.
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