North Dakota Governor Rescinds TikTok Ban on State Government Devices

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong recently issued an executive order that lifts a 2022 ban prohibiting the state’s executive branch agencies from using TikTok on state-owned devices.

The decision to rescind the ban comes “now that the social media pp is majority-owned by an American-led consortium,” according to a statement from Armstrong’s office.

As the statement noted, then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum issued the TikTok sanction 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 January 2026, TikTok announced the establishment of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, the end result of a deal to divest TikTok from ByteDance.)

Per Armstrong’s recent order, North Dakota state agencies are now allowed to request access to the app on state-owned devices. Such requests will go through North Dakota Information Technology’s (NDIT) standard application review process “and must meet applicable security requirements before access is approved.”

The order also obliges executive branch agencies to update their internal device-use policies to align with standard state IT governance rules, removing any specific prohibitions that originated from Burgum’s 2022 directive. NDIT will continue to monitor and enforce general cybersecurity controls across all state-owned devices and networks to ensure the security and privacy of state data.

Armstrong’s order does not, however, limit the authority of the state’s Office of Management and Budget, NDIT or any executive branch agency “to implement or enforce reasonable cybersecurity measures governing the use of state-owned devices, networks, applications or information systems, consistent with applicable law and statewide information technology policies.”