In a major turnaround, Zohran Mamdani tells NYC agencies they can use TikTok

New York City elderly people Zohran Mamdaniwhich surrounded social media driven campaign to Gracie Mansion, is overturning an Eric Adams-era directive barring TikTok from government-owned devices. Local agencies will now be able to post about their projects on the app, albeit with new safety rails to protect city networks.

“The Mamdani administration is committed to using every tool in our toolbox to communicate with New Yorkers,” says the email to agencies, obtained by WIRED. “At a time when people are turning to city government for information about free services, emergencies, upcoming events and more, we want to open new avenues of communication with the public and help provide the information New Yorkers need.”

In August 2023, then-Mayor Adams banned the use of TikTok on government devices, joining the ranks of other state and federal agencies that deemed the app at the time. a major security risk. Jonah Allon, spokesman for Adams, then said that the city’s cyber mandate office decided that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, “poses a security threat to the city’s technical networks and ordered its removal from city-owned devices.”

The order led to the closure of a number of popular city-run accounts, including accounts for the NYC Departments of Sanitation and Parks and Recreation. As of Tuesday morning, the accounts’ bios read: “This account was operated by NYC until August 2023. It is no longer monitored.”

Now, these TikTok accounts will be allowed to reopen with some new rules aimed at protecting the security of NYC’s networks and devices while allowing agencies to communicate with citizens on the popular app. To use TikTok, agencies will be required to use separate, government-issued devices for the app that “cannot contain sensitive or restricted data, and cannot be used for email, internal systems or privileged access,” according to the email to agencies. Agencies will assign specific staff from media and press offices to manage the TikTok accounts with city government emails, not personal ones.

“In a fragmented media landscape, more and more people — especially younger people — are looking beyond the four corners of their television screen to stay informed,” Mamdani told WIRED in a statement. “Our responsibility is simple: Meet people where they are. That means stepping outside our comfort zones and communicating in ways that reflect how New Yorkers actually live, work and connect.”

Reversing Mamdani’s rule come after his November election which relied heavily on social media to conduct voter outreach. Mamdani used TikTok to recruit volunteers and strengthen his policy platform. During his first few months in office, Mamdani continued to utilize social media platforms and publish a variety of public service announcements related to city-run programs.

Before dangerous winter weather in January, Mamdani had a video to the official @nycmayor account on Instagram asking New Yorkers to sign up for the city’s free emergency communications program, NotifyNYC. The show gained more than 32,000 new subscribers in the four days after the video was released, according to statistics provided by Mamdani’s office. Last year, New York City Emergency Management ran a $240,000 advertising round for NotifyNYC, which gained about 48,000 new subscribers. Mamdani also created a handful of videos asking New Yorkers to join a Department of Sanitation snow shoveling program. About 5,000 people signed up, tripling the number previously signed up to the program.

The situation has also changed for the application. In January 2026, TikTok finalized an agreement with the Trump administration to form a new US-based version of the company run by American investors, including Oracle. The consortium of US investors fended off a nationwide ban on the app.