NYC Mayor Mamdani Reverses City Government TikTok Ban

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the reversal of the 2023 city government ban on TikTok, allowing city agencies and public employees to use TikTok on specially designated government-issued devices that cannot access sensitive data, internal email systems, or restricted networks. The reversal follows the finalization of TikTok's US divestiture deal on January 22, 2026, under which Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX now hold majority control of TikTok's US operations and US user data is stored exclusively on Oracle-managed servers. Mayor Mamdani framed the reversal as enabling New York City government agencies to communicate with constituents on a platform used by 170 million Americans. Critics including the Washington Examiner argued the reversal was premature given ByteDance's retained 19.9% stake and ongoing legal questions about the deal's national security protections.