BISMARCK, N.D. – Gov. Kelly Armstrong today rescinded a ban that prohibited executive branch agencies from using TikTok on state-owned devices, now that the social media app is majority-owned by an American-led consortium.
The rescission removes the existing statewide prohibition on TikTok, allowing agencies to request access to the application on state-owned devices. Requests for TikTok will continue to go through North Dakota Information Technology’s standard application review process and must meet applicable security requirements before access is approved.
Then-Gov. Doug Burgum issued the TikTok ban in December 2022, citing national security concerns around how the app collected and shared data when Chinese parent company ByteDance was the majority owner. In September 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order approving of a proposed divestiture of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a new joint venture majority-owned by American investors. TikTok announced in January 2026 that it had spun off its U.S. operations to the U.S. joint venture, whose owners include Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, with a seven-member, majority-American board of directors.
Updated risk evaluations by NDIT have determined that the app no longer presents an unmitigated or unique cybersecurity threat to state operations, Armstrong noted in today’s executive order.