Governor Noem signs executive order banning another Chinese company

Governor Noem has signed an executive order banning Tencent Holding, Ltd. for state government agencies, employees, and contractors using state devices.

Tencent is a China-based technology and media conglomerate and one of the world’s largest companies. Noem says it poses similar cybersecurity risks to South Dakota as ByteDance and TikTok.

The order bans the downloading or use of any application or visiting of any website owned or controlled by Tencent Holdings, Ltd. on state devices and networks.

The Executive Order also gives the Commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications the power to ban any other app, website, service, or product whose use or access would be detrimental to state security in the same way as Tencent or Bytedance.

The Commissioner will keep a publicly accessible list of entities banned.

May 8, 2023