Published: April 1, 2026, 11:01 PM
NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is permitting city government employees and agencies to use TikTok again, reversing a ban his predecessor enacted out of data security concerns.
Mamdani, whose prolific social media use became a hallmark of his successful 2025 mayoral campaign, announced the reversal of the TikTok prohibition in a brief video released on the app Tuesday morning.
“TikTok, we’re back,” Mamdani said in a four-second video posted to the @nycmayor account. The clip came after POLITICO first reported the announcement was imminent.
The @nycmayor handle had been inactive since 2023 when former Mayor Eric Adams banned TikTok from being used on city government devices due to concerns about the app’s ownership ties to the Chinese government.
Besides resurrecting the mayoral account, Mamdani is allowing city government agencies to start operating on TikTok again — with some new security guardrails in place.
In an email sent to city agencies Tuesday, Mamdani’s administration wrote that agency personnel can only use the app on city government-issued devices that contain no other applications aside from TikTok. Additionally, the email, obtained by POLITICO, says agencies that wish to use TikTok must designate specific staff from their communications team to use the app.
“The Mamdani administration is committed to using every tool in our toolbox to communicate with New Yorkers,” says the email. “At a moment when people are turning to city government for information about free services, emergency situations, upcoming events, and more, we want to open up new avenues of communication with the public and help deliver the information New Yorkers need.”
Following in the footsteps of a number of other U.S. cities and states, Adams’ administration announced in August 2023 that TikTok would no longer be allowed on city government devices. At the time, U.S. officials were raising concern that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was too closely tied to the Chinese government, opening the door to Beijing potentially gaining access to sensitive American user data.
President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok outright in the U.S. in 2020 over the platform’s ties to the Chinese government. But after his second inauguration, Trump has shifted course and sought ways to let the app remain operational in the U.S.
In light of Trump’s change of heart, TikTok, which denies sharing data with the Chinese government, has taken steps to separate itself from Beijing.
Earlier this year, ByteDance announced it had spun out a new American entity to run TikTok in the U.S. However, cybersecurity experts say that new structure still raises data security concerns, as ByteDance retains an ownership stake.
Dozens of states continue to ban employees from using TikTok on their devices. That includes New York State, which enacted its ban in 2020.
For Mamdani, TikTok use hits close to home. As a candidate during last year’s mayoral race, he relied heavily on the app to get his message out to voters and also used it to organize canvassing events.
