Popular app TikTok banned from use at Florida universities

Universities across the state will now be prohibited from using campus Wi-Fi or school-owned devices to access the popular app TikTok after a recent decision from the Florida Board of Governors.

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, University of South Florida and others.

In an email sent to UF employees and students late Wednesday, no one is to use TikTok through the university's network due to potential security risks. Along with Tencent QQ, WeChat, VKonatke and Kaspersky, TikTok is also now prohibited for use in any UF marketing or advertising initiatives.

UF also urged deleting such apps from personal devices.

"Taking this action will help protect your personal information as well as university data," the email read.

The policy is in compliance with an emergency regulation adopted by the State University System Board of Governors on March 29. The regulation references the State University System's prohibited technologies list, and requires apps like TikTok to be removed from all university-owned devices immediately and for UF to block network traffic from these platforms.

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"The university treats the protection of UF data – academic records, research, financial information, and other sensitive, personally identifying information – as an institutional priority," the email read.

TikTok, a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to record and edit content, is owned and operated by the company ByteDance headquartered in Beijing, China. Members of Congress held a hearing two weeks ago to discuss the potential harm of the app.

UF previously sent an email to students and faculty on Jan. 12 that discouraged the use of TikTok and suggested removing the app on all devices due to data collection concerns. Students, however, said they intend to keep using it and suggested that the administration was overreacting.

While at an event in Daytona Beach in Febuary, UF President Ben Sasse said that China could shut down "huge portions of the U.S. economy," if they wanted to use collected data from users.

"Shout out to all of those that think TikTok is anything other than a tool of the Chinese government," said Sasse to the crowd, adding his record for supporting bills that restrict what apps can do. "These are fake private-sector companies that are really controlled by the national security laws of China to try gather more and more big data."

To date, there has been no proof provided that shows the app is operated by the Chinese government to steal information from users. The company's terms of the agreement are similar to other popular apps, such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Still, in the email kicked out by UF, the university states that experts have highlighted the app as a national security concern, claiming that foreign governments may use the social media app to "control data collection, influence TikTok's recommendation algorithm and compromise personal devices."

"As the university considers additional future steps, we strongly recommend that everyone discontinue using TikTok and remove the app from their devices. Taking this action will help protect your personal information as well as university data," UF Vice President and Chief Information Officer Elias Eldayrie wrote.

While UF technically has the right ban TikTok from its network and devices, Alyssa Knappen, a 20-year-old UF history junior, said the criticism should also apply to other platforms that have similar privacy concerns.

"Its privacy issues are the same as Facebook and Instagram," she said. "If they’re going to ban one, then they should apply that rule to all of the social media."

Julia Graddy, a 19-year-old freshman, echoed the sentiment. She called the ban a step in the right direction for protecting privacy but felt singling out TikTok was strange.

"I don't really understand what makes TikTok unique from Facebook, Instagram or anything like that," Graddy said. "I think all these apps are doing the same thing. It just happens to be owned by a foreign (company)."

She deleted TikTok last year while applying for colleges, but not for the privacy concerns officials shared. Graddy said the app was a major distraction for her, as she spent two or three hours on the platform each day.

"It was really contributing to declining mental health and insecurities," she said. "I just thought it was kind of a waste of time."

Other students, like Cody McLean, a 21-year-old UF economics and information systems major, said they will continue to use TikTok, regardless of the change.

"I don't really care," McLean said. "I’ll just turn off my Wi-Fi and use it on campus."