All the major Florida universities just banned TikTok on their campuses

All the major Florida universities just banned TikTok on their campuses.

Universities across the state of Florida 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 state’s 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.

Julia Dunning, another student, believes the ban is a waste of time.

“We’ve already heard people talking and people are already upset,” she said. “I don’t know why. I think that it’s kind of weird that Florida’s doing it in general. I have learned a lot from TikTok, not just entertainment, but I’ve learned stuff.”

Besides TikTok, also prohibited are Wechat, Vkontakte (VK), Kaspersky, and QQ (Tencent QQ).

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. FAU said these restrictions apply to employees using university-owned devices, including laptops, desktops, cellphones and tablets.

Personally owned devices are not subject to these restrictions when used off-campus, FAU said, but they will be blocked while devices are in use on FAU campuses or when connected to the university’s VPN.

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.

There are concerns the Chinese government could order ByteDance to hand over the data it collects about its users. Some schools announced the changes earlier in the week.

Eric Joseph, a student at FAU, said he won’t lose any sleep over the ban.

“Because the algorithm and it takes all your information and shows you what you want to see,” he told WPTV’s Todd Wilson. “So, instead of, like, doing work, you’re like there swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe.