TikTok really rocked Florida.
The State University System of Florida Board of Governors recently banned the popular social media app from school-owned devices at state universities “due to the ongoing and expanding cyber threat landscape,” CNN reported.
After a memo was sent to the presidents of the state university system, the ban was instituted with immediate effect. “This regulation requires institutions to remove technologies published on the State University System (SUS) list of prohibited technologies from all university-owned devices and to block network traffic associated with those technologies,” said Chancellor Ray Rodrigues.
Other software, applications and developers such as Tencent QQ, WeChat, Vkontakte, Kaspersky and Fizz have also been banned.
The university system, including the University of Florida, Florida Atlantic University and the University of South Florida, had already enacted the ban. Tallahassee Democrat reported FSU Associate Provost for Strategy and Analytics Rick Burnette said the school is committed to “protecting our community from potential cyber threats.”
“This includes security measures to protect the personal information of our faculty, staff and students from potential threats,” he added.
Florida A&M University, a Florida-based HBCU that used to use the app, took steps to ban TikTok from its campus last month. The app allows users to record and edit short video content such as dances and info sessions. Several FAMU students using the app have expressed concerns about the sudden change, saying it restricts their freedom of speech. “The main problem is that it limits freedom of speech and access to entertainment and information because TikTok is also a breeding ground for getting information out to people in a short amount of time,” said sophomore CJ Mitchells.
Another student said: “The ban would disrupt one way of communicating, especially since today’s world is so much more digital.”
Meanwhile, TikTok officials have made it more than clear that security is not a threat when using the app. “TikTok has taken unprecedented action to address national security concerns by securing US user data on US soil,” spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide said. “TikTok is used by more than 150 million Americans, including university and college students and teachers, to engage in the classroom.”