University Of Texas Bans On The Use Of TikTok On Campus

TikTok is banned at the University of Texas in Austin. (photo; dock. tiktok)

JAKARTA - TikTok is back in the spotlight after many states of the United States (US) have banned it from being accessed by government officials, now it's the turn of universities to block the application.

The University of Texas Faculty and student at Austin last week became the latest members of a US state university to lose access to TikTok through a campus network.

The president's adviser to the technology strategy, Jeff Ne Empat, told students about the change via email.

"Universities are taking these important steps to eliminate the risks to the information contained in our important University and infrastructure networks," Negoli said.

"In accordance with the governor's directives, TikTok harvests large amounts of data from its users' devices, including when, where, and how they carry out internet activities and offers this potentially sensitive collection of information to the Chinese government," he added.

Necepat menyatakan, larangan universitas itu sebagai bentuk mematuhi arahan pada Desember tahun lalu yang dikeluarkan oleh gubernur negara Greg Abbott.

The directive not only prohibits state agencies in Texas from using or downloading TikTok on devices issued by the government, but also directs specific state resources to develop network-based restriction plans.

This is to prevent the use of TikTok on any personal device. Implementation no later than February 15th.

If there are students who wish to use TikTok on campus, they can apply for an exception to access devices issued by the university, with a single and isolated destination that is not connected to Wi-Fi or university cable networks.

The reasons given for exceptions, including the need for law enforcement, investigation issues or academic research.

The University of Texas at Austin is not alone in its actions, the University of North Texas has also blocked the app. Even with Texas Tech and the University of Houston reportedly awaiting state directions on using TikTok on private devices before issuing any bans.

For information, more than 30 states have banned access to TikTok on government devices and many of their universities have also done the same.

The University System of Georgia, University of Oklahoma, and Auburn University in Alabama have reportedly limited access from the China-based ByteDance app, quoted by The Register, Tuesday, January 24.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and FBI Director Chris Wray recently campaigned against the use of TikTok because of its parent company data collection policy and potential use of applications for espionage.

Even so, TikTok denies doing so and the company is working fully to address all US national security concerns.