LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada is banning TikTok on state devices, but the popular video app remains a part of Las Vegas attempts to connect with tourists and residents.
The @vegas account from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has some big engagement numbers with TikTok viewers, including 1.6 million followers and 6.1 million likes. The most popular of the 225-plus posts on the account is a 15-second video celebrating October Pride last year. A post reads: “#LasVegasPride wants you to celebrate wherever you are,” and invites viewers to watch a livestream. The video has 13.3 million views.
Many of the @vegas videos have more than a million views, with content ranging from free things to do, Las Vegas Raiders players, must-try attractions and great visuals from the Strip.
The City of Las Vegas has its own TikTok presence, with more than 550 videos targeted more at locals. A city spokesman said Thursday that the state ban wouldn’t affect the city’s use of TikTok. “We’re not abandoning it,” according to Jace Radke.
The @cityoflasvegas account has 14,800 followers and more than 6,000 likes, featuring content ranging from information on cannabis lounges, a day in the life of Mayor Carolyn Goodman and messages about conserving water. History and community news are a bigger part of the videos.
But there’s a mix of entertainment, too. A video highlighting comments about expensive Taylor Swift tickets is among the city’s most popular with 139,600 views. A clickbait headline, “What happens in the city jail at night?” leads all @cityoflasvegas videos with more than 179,000 views.
The LVCVA and City of Las Vegas accounts don’t approach the levels of the Top 100 influencers on TikTok. Those accounts all have at least 13 million followers, with the top influencer at 148 million.
The state’s list of blacklisted apps, software and products extends far beyond TikTok. The full list:
- Alibaba products, including but not limited to AliPay*
- China Mobile International USA Inc.*
- China Telecom (Americas) Corp.*
- China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited*
- Dahua Technology Company*
- Grammarly
- Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company*
- Huawei Technologies*
- Hytera Communications Corporation*
- Kaspersky*
- Pacific Network Corp/ComNet (USA) LLC*
- Tencent Holdings, including but not limited to Tencent QQ, QQ Wallet, and WeChat*
- TikTok
- ZTE Corporation*
The apps marked with an asterisk (*) are banned by the federal government. The products are blacklisted for compromising information security.
In late February, the U.S. mandated that all federal employees delete TikTok from government-issued cell phones.
Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.
