The impact of Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s recent banning of social media platform TikTok on state-owned devices has been felt by one local agency. Meanwhile, local government is continuing to monitor and discuss the situation at this time.
Governor Kelly signed executive order 20-10 into law Wednesday which bans the use of the platform on all state-owned devices and the state network for members of the Kansas executive branch agencies, boards, and commissions and their respective employees. Not included in the order are employees of the Board of Regents, Regents Institutions, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of Secretary of State, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, the Office of the State Treasurer, the Department of Education, the Judicial Branch, nor the Legislative Branch of Government.
Governor Kelly calls the signing of the order “common-sense steps” to protect the security and privacy of Kansas residents from “data mining” a growing concern for leaders at the federal level.
Following the announcement of the executive order, KVOE reached out to local government to inquire how this would affect local operations. City of Emporia Communications Manager Christine Johnson issued a prepared statement saying “the city does not access the City of Emporia TikTok channel on our network to create content. The city does take measures to secure our network from applications when they are necessary.
I cannot speak for LCECC, but the Emporia Police Department no longer has a separate TikTok channel; it is housed on the City of Emporia (@emporiaks) channel.”
The Lyon County Emergency Communications Center has deleted its account according to LCECC Director Roxanne Van Gundy. In a written statement to KVOE News, Van Gundy says “In light of security concerns expressed at the state level, Lyon County deems it prudent to mirror the State of Kansas’ approach to TikTok.”
Lyon County Commission Chairman Rollie Martin says for the moment, it is unclear what impact this could have for other county operations. He says commissioners plan to discuss the matter in the coming days.
