New York Mayor Mamdani puts city’s government back on TikTok

Almost three years ago, New York City joined governments across the country in banning TikTok from its phones over security concerns about the Chinese social media site.

On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a bona fide social media star, took to the app to announce a reversal: “TikTok, we’re back.”

The city will now allow agencies to start posting again on the short-form social media site as long as departments follow a set of security precautions, according to a memo from city cybersecurity officials provided by the mayor’s office.

The prohibition was established by Eric Adams, Mamdani’s predecessor, in 2023, as the federal government and many US states restricted the app from government-owned devices over concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, could share data with the Chinese government.

TikTok had waved off the governments’ worries as unfounded. Since then it has reached an agreement to spin off its US operation in a move to alleviate those concerns and avoid a wider ban in the country.

In a memo on Tuesday, NYC Cyber Command, which is in charge of safeguarding city systems against cyber threats, wrote that the change was about broadening the city’s communications reach.