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Texas is banning Chinese-backed artificial intelligence and social media apps on government-issued devices.
On Friday, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he has issued a ban prohibiting the use of AI and social media apps affiliated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP).
"Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps," Governor Abbott said. "To achieve that mission, I ordered Texas state agencies to ban Chinese government-based AI and social media apps from all state-issued devices.
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Department of Information Resources have been ordered to add the following technologies to the state’s prohibited technologies list, meaning state employees and contractors cannot download and use these apps on state-owned or personal devices used for work: RedNote, DeepSeek, Webull, Tiger Brokers, Moomoo and Lemon8.
"State agencies and employees responsible for handling critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party," said Governor Abbott.
Governor Abbott already issued four directives to Texas state agencies to protect Texans from the PRC and the CCP two months ago:
Directing all state agencies and public institutions of higher education to harden state systems and safeguard critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information from being accessed
Directing DPS to target and arrest any criminals executing CCP influence operations like “Operation Fox Hunt” to forcibly return dissidents to China
Directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Public Utility Commission of Texas to prepare for potential threats against Texas’ critical infrastructure
Directing Texas state agencies to fully divest from China
All Texas state agencies were ordered to ban the use of TikTok on any government-issued devices in 2022.