RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) – The controversial social media app ‘TikTok’ won’t be banned on city devices, at least for now.
All but one council member, Jason Salamun, voted to table his proposal to have the city attorney’s office draft a ban at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Members of the council received a study Tuesday morning from a professor at the Georgia Tech, saying TikTok’s threat to national security is virtually non-existent.
Salamun told reporters after the meeting that if the issue was important enough for the state and federal governments to take-up it’s important for the city to address.
”The company is still based in China, and that’s at the heart of it,” Salamun said. “So, this wasn’t my opinion about whether or not TikTok is good or bad, that’s a whole other discussion regarding social media, that’s not what this is about. This was about whether or not this was a cybersecurity threat. In my mind it was.”
Salamun said the issue may come-up again if other city officials choose to address it in the future.
Councilwoman Laura Armstrong, who stood in opposition to Salamun’s proposal, also spoke to reporters and said “I’m glad our council came together and demonstrated leadership, so we don’t have to participate in media McCarthyism or digital protectionism.”
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