Popular app TikTok banned at Florida university
A recent decision by the Florida Board of Governors will bar colleges and universities across the state from using campus Wi-Fi or school-owned devices to access the popular app TikTok.
The ban includes the state’s largest institutions with hundreds of thousands of students, including the University of Florida, Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, and the University of South Florida.
In an email sent late Wednesday to UF employees and students, TikTok cannot be used over the university’s network due to potential security risks.In addition to Tencent QQ, WeChat, VKonatke and Kaspersky. Accordingly, TikTok is also prohibited from use in any UF marketing or advertising initiative.
UF also urged people to remove such apps from their personal devices.
“By taking this measure, we are able to help protect your personal information and University data,” the email read.
policy is compliant emergency regulation Adopted by the State University System Board of Trustees on March 29.Regulations of the State University System Prohibited technology listapps such as TikTok should be removed from all university-owned devices immediately, and UF should block network traffic from these platforms.
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“The University treats the protection of UF data as a University priority.
A short-form video-sharing app that allows users to record and edit content, TikTok is owned and operated by ByteDance, a company headquartered in Beijing, China.parliamentarians held 2 weeks ago public hearing Discuss the potential harm of the app.
Former UF Email sent to students, faculty and staff on January 12th or discouraged me from using TikTok Due to data collection concerns, I suggested removing the app on all devices. However, the students said they intended to continue using it, suggesting that the administration was overreacting.
At an event in Daytona Beach in February, UF President Ben Sasse said China could shut down “a large portion of the U.S. economy” if it wanted to use data collected from its users.
“Shout out to everyone who thinks TikTok is nothing more than a tool for the Chinese government,” Sasse told the audience, adding that he has backed legislation to limit what the app can do. “These are fake private companies that are actually controlled by China’s national security law and seek to collect more and more big data.”
So far, there is no evidence that the app is operated by the Chinese government to steal information from its users. The company’s terms and conditions are similar to other popular apps such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Still, in an email issued by UF, the university said experts highlighted the app as a national security concern and that foreign governments could use the social media app to “control data collection and use TikTok. It can affect the recommendation algorithm of , and compromise personal devices.” ”
“As the university is considering additional steps in the future, we strongly recommend that everyone stop using TikTok and remove the app from their devices. Information and university data can be protected,” writes UF Vice President and Chief Information Officer Elias Eldayrie.
What do students have to say?
While UF is technically right to ban TikTok from its networks and devices, Alyssa Knappen, a 20-year-old UF history junior, said the criticism applies to other platforms with similar privacy concerns. said it should.
“Its privacy issues are the same as Facebook and Instagram,” she said. “If they ban one, that rule should apply to all social media.”
Julia Grady, a 19-year-old first grader, agrees. She called the ban a step in the right direction for privacy protection, but she found it odd to single out TikTok.
“I’m not sure what makes TikTok so unique compared to Facebook, Instagram, etc.,” said Graddy. “I think all these apps do the same thing. They just happen to be owned by foreign[corporations].”
She deleted TikTok last year while applying to college, but not because of privacy concerns shared by authorities.Grady spent two to three hours on the platform each day, so the app was a big deal for her He says it was refreshing.
“It really contributed to my mental health and lowering my anxiety,” she said.
Other students, like Cody McLean, a 21-year-old economics and information systems major at the University of Florida, said they would stick with TikTok regardless of the changes.
“I don’t really care,” McLean said. “Turn off Wi-Fi and use it on campus.”
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