John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 01.30.2023 01:Jan AM EST

Students, Professors Demand TikTok Ban Lifted in State Schools

The banning of TikTok on universities may have upset many of the people in them.

Students and professors at the University of Texas, Austin, have recently protested against the banning of the popular social media app as they feel that doing so is a "push in the wrong direction."

The University of Texas at Austin previously announced it is banning TikTok on its wired or Wi-Fi networks and all government-issued devices to follow Texas Governor Greg Abbott's order to do so.

TikTok Ban Protest Details

TikTok may have been a means to an end for some students and professors, according to Phone Arena's report. Kate Biberdorf, a 36-year-old professor of chemistry at the university, mentioned that the ban doesn't sit right with her as they use TikTok as an educational tool to make science "fun and accessible" to everyone.

Biberdorf wasn't joking. Apart from being a university professor, she is also a content creator known on TikTok as Kate the Chemist and has already amassed around 194,400 TikTok followers since she started.

The chemistry professor also added that the ban the university enacted felt like it was taking away their rights and that it was another push in the wrong direction.

Students, like Eric Aaberg of the University of Texas at Austin, are also dismayed about the ban. According to TIME, he is still making content on TikTok on his personal page, but he can no longer work on the university's mascot page, which he was helping to develop for years.

Aaberg revealed in a post on his personal TikTok account that people loved the work he puts into the university's mascot page, but because of the ban, it is now rotting away.

"I don't care if you don't like TikTok. [The university's mascot page] is my job. That is what I do for a living," Aaberg added.

Why The TikTok Ban?

TikTok poses a national security risk not just in the US, but also in other countries. It is supposedly a surveillance tool for the Chinese government, collecting data from phones and devices that China could use for "blackmail, espionage, influence foreign campigns, and surveillance," per FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The app's perceived risks are so great that the US government, or its House of Foreign Affairs Committee, specifically, plans to hold a vote in February on a bill that aims to ban the app's use in the country, per the South China Morning Post.

The bill, which Representative Michael McCaul planned, aims to give the White House the legal tools its needs to ban TIkTok from the US over national security concerns.

These are the same concerns that convinced the country's universities from banning the app from their networks, though the University of Texas at Austin gave exemptions allowing "legitimate" uses of the app to support university functions like law enforcement, academic research, and even investigatory matters.

However, students and staff must acquire approval from the university's Information Security Office, which will provide an isolated, single-purpose university-issued device not connected to its Wi-Fi or wired network should it give the go-ahead.