On Wednesday, January 18, messages appeared that the University of Texas at San Antonio has followed the University of Texas at Austin in further restricting access to TikTok. UTSA has already banned the use of TikTok on university-issued devices, but an email sent to students said the institution has also restricted access to TikTok on university networks.
“In accordance with the directive, no user can anymore access TikTok over any UTSA network, wired or wireless,” reads a screenshot of an email sent to students, shared on Twitter by News 4 reporter Jordan Elder.
MySA has reached out to UTSA for comment on the blocking of TikTok. On Tuesday, January 17, reports surfaced that UT-Austin had also blocked access to the video-sharing app on its Wi-Fi and wired networks in response to Abbott’s directive. The University of North Texas at Denton has also blocked TikTok on its networks.
Abbott’s ban also directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to look into banning TikTok on government employees’ personal devices. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., and in December 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed concern that the app was also in the hands of the Chinese government, which “does not share our values.”
Abbott was more confident in his case for the ban, saying it would protect “a trove of potentially sensitive information” from being accessed through TikTok users by the “Chinese Communist Party”.
