Nebraska expands Chinese Communist Party tech restrictions

StateScoop reports that Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has prohibited the utilization or download of Chinese Communist Party-linked software potentially containing concealed backdoors allowing data compromise across all state-owned devices as part of an executive order that comes two years after an earlier ban of communication technologies from Chinese firms Huawei, ZTE, Dahua Technology, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, and Hytera Communications.

"We need to continue identifying and eliminating threats that come from the Chinese Communist Party. They don't mean well, and we must ensure that America’s adversaries can't hack our state's data or critical digital infrastructure. This is important, ongoing work and commonsense governance," said Pillen, who also noted the restrictions to be based on China's aggressive actions against U.S. ally Taiwan and its human rights violations against Uyghur minorities.

Such an EO comes after New York, Texas, and North Carolina prohibited the usage of Chinese generative artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek and other Chinese services across government devices.