JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A decision from Florida’s Board of Governors bans TikTok from school-owned devices and public Wi-Fi on public university campuses across the state. Leaders fear the Chinese government could be using the social media app to access personal information.
TikTok has more than 1.3 billion users worldwide, and the app’s owner, Bytedance, denies allegations of spying.
The statewide ban includes the University of North Florida, the University of Florida and Florida State University, which are among Florida’s 12 public universities.
Obviously, there’s not some sort of force field or magic blocker to stop people from going onto TikTok on their personal phones and devices while they’re on the campus, but in Florida, if they’re on a public university campus, and they’re using the campus’ Wi-Fi, they are not going to be able to use the app.
UNF sent an email Wednesday to students and staff, letting them know Chinese-owned TikTok is blocked effective immediately because it’s a security risk.
“The University of North Florida is complying with a recent Emergency Regulation from the State University System Board of Governors requiring institutions to remove technologies published in the State University System (SUS) Prohibited Technologies List from any university-owned device and to block network traffic associated with these technologies,” the university notification states. “These apps and technologies have been identified as having a significant security risk on personal data and infrastructure. This regulation applies to all universities in the State University System and lists software/applications/developers that pose a cybersecurity risk.”
University of North Florida email to students, staff
UNF School of Computing director Dr. Sherif Elfayoumy said people need to have their guard up. Risks are elevated because the number of Americans who use the app gives the company and possibly the Chinese government access to way too much information.
“It would be naïve of us to think that (spying) is not in their plans,” Elfayoumy said. “Even if I believe them now, I cannot believe them in the future.”
TikTok is certainly popular among college students, like UNF students Garrett Kelley and Alexis Korsoh.
“It’s fun,” Kelley said. “You get to see a lot of random stuff. Everything that you like is on there.”
“I just like that it’s simple to use and easy,” Korsoh said. “Videos aren’t that long.”
The ban on TikTok comes at a time when the state of Florida has also banned government agencies from using Chinese-made DJI drones -- and when there’s a push across the country to outlaw TikTok altogether.
Students on UNF’s campus, like Kelley and Korsoh, offered varied opinions Thursday about the campus Wi-Fi ban for TikTok.
“I honestly think it’s ridiculous, because TikTok, that’s the least of our worries,” Milo Mitchell said.
“I don’t care who has my personal information, my data, as long as they don’t have my bank account,” Jamey DeVries said. “I think it’s shared anyway, everywhere, already.”
Other apps like WeChat that are owned by foreign companies have also been blacklisted from campus Wi-Fi at Florida’s public universities.
Here’s the full list of banned apps:
- Kaspersky
- VKontakte
- Tencent QQ
- TikTok
- WeChat
- And any subsidiary or affiliate of an entity listed above