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The University of Texas at Austin has blocked access to the TikTok video-sharing app on its Wi-Fi and wired networks in response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent directive requiring all government agencies to remove the app from government devices. letter sent to students on Tuesday.
“The university is taking these important steps to address the risks to the information contained on the university network and to our critical infrastructure,” UT-Austin Technology Advisor Jeff Neyland wrote in an email. “As outlined in the Governor’s directive, TikTok collects vast amounts of data from its users’ devices, including when, where and how they engage in online activity, and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government.”
Following the university’s announcement on Tuesday morning, representatives from several Texas universities, including representatives from the University of Texas at Dallas and the Texas A&M University System, announced that they were also restricting the app’s use on their campus networks.
“[W]We are in the process of implementing network filtering that will block both wireless and wired download access or app access from our campus network, meaning students, faculty, staff, and visitors will not be able to use the app when connected. to the A&M network,” said Leylan Kopelin, a spokesman for the system.
Abbott’s Dec. 7 directive states that all government agencies must prohibit employees from downloading or using the app on government devices, including mobile phones, laptops, and desktop computers, with the exception of law enforcement agencies. He also directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources to develop a plan to help government agencies deal with the use of TikTok on personal devices, including those that access a government official’s email account or connect to a government agency network.
This plan was to be distributed to government agencies by January 15, and each government agency is expected to develop its own policy regarding the use of TikTok on personal devices by February 15, in accordance with Abbott’s directive. Two public universities, the University of Houston and Texas Tech University, said in separate statements that they are still waiting for the state’s guidance to be released.
On Tuesday afternoon, the University of Texas at Dallas announced that it would ban the social media app from its networks, except for university-owned housing, as those networks are operated by a third party.
The University of North Texas at Denton has also banned TikTok from its networks, the spokesperson said.
“‘[D]devices capable of connecting to the Internet require a network to connect to the Internet,” UNT director of communications Laken Rapier said in a statement. “Thus, blocking TikTok at the network level prevents… “devices capable of connecting to the Internet” from downloading or using TikTok.”
TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. Last month, FBI Director Chris Ray raised national security concerns about the Chinese government’s ability to potentially collect user data and use the app’s algorithms to “manipulate content” and “use it for influence operations.” ”
More than half of US states have banned the use of the social media app on government devices to some extent in recent months, according to a CNN analysis. Across the country, a growing number of universities are banning the app on devices connected to campus networks, including Auburn University in Alabama, the University of Oklahoma, and schools in the Georgia university system.
The ban could have serious implications, especially at universities catering to undergraduate students, a key demographic using the app. University admissions offices have used it to connect with applicants, and many athletics departments have used TikTok to promote sports events and teams. It’s also unclear how the ban will affect educators who research the app, or professors who teach in fields such as communications or public relations, in which TikTok is a widely used medium.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that they are disappointed with the news.
“We are disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to adopt policies that do nothing to improve cybersecurity in their states and are based on unsubstantiated lies about TikTok,” spokesman Jamal Brown wrote. “We are especially sorry to see the unintended consequences of this hasty policy, which is starting to affect the ability of universities to share information, recruit students, and build communities around sports teams, student groups, campus publications, etc.”
Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University System, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, and the University of North Texas have provided financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization. which is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their full list here.
This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune.
