These Colleges Just Banned TikTok

President Joe Biden on April 24 signed a law that could ban Chinese-owned TikTok in the United States unless it is sold within a year.

The measure was included in a bill providing foreign aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. It gives TikTok’s parent company nine months to sell it or be shut down in the U.S. Biden can grant a one-time extension of 90 days, bringing the timeline to sell to one year, if he certifies that there’s a path to divestiture and “significant progress” toward executing it.

The law is not expected to cause an immediate disruption to TikTok, which has more than 170 million users in the U.S.

It does, however, represent the latest and most impactful threat to TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese tech company that some politicians fear is sharing information with the Chinese government.

The social media app for the last two years has been the target of many state governors, with more than 30 states banning TikTok from government networks and devices.

Such bans have trickled down to those states’ public colleges and universities, which are seeking to protect the security of their networks and avoid conflict with the state leaders in control of much of their funding.

TikTok bans in higher education began in December 2022, when Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt issued an executive order banning TikTok for all state agencies, employees, and contractors on government networks and devices. Within the month, at least five public institutions banned the app.

Since then, Texas and Florida are among the largest states to ban TikTok, impacting millions of college students by effectively cutting off access to the app via college campus WiFi networks.

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, in December 2022, ordered all state agencies to ban the use of TikTok on state devices, and by January 2023, most Texas institutions banned the app on their networks in anticipation of a full ban, which was issued on February 6, 2023.

“The security risks associated with the use of TikTok on devices used to conduct the important business of our state must not be underestimated or ignored,” Abbott said in a release. “Owned by a Chinese company that employs Chinese Communist Party members, TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device, including details about a user’s internet activity.”

Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, in May 2023, signed three bills his office said would “counteract the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the state of Florida.”

Senate Bill 258 blocks “all prohibited applications from public access on any wireless network and virtual private network owned, operated, or maintained by the governmental entity or public educational institution.” TikTok is among those prohibited applications.

“We think that’s appropriate because we think whatever utility these applications have is clearly outweighed by the benefit that the CCP gets from data mining and being able to collect information,” DeSantis said in a press conference.

As politicians continue to posture on and legislate the fate of TikTok, BestColleges is tracking which colleges and universities have actually banned the app from their internet networks and institution-issued devices.

Last Updated: August 17, 2023 at 4:48 P.M. EST

Sources: Arkansas State University, THV11, Boise State University, Montana University System, Langston University, University of Oklahoma, Lamar University, The Texas Tribune, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Dallas, Business Insider, KWTX.com, KKTV.com, University of Mississippi, 4029TV.com, KGNS.tv, The Famuan, WMBF News, The Exponent, WCTV, The Grand Forks Herald, 7 News Miami, The Tampa Bay Times, Local10.com, Tennessee General Assembly, Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis, Coastal Carolina University, Montana.Gov, ABC 12 News, The Tiger, The Cavalier Daily.