An email from USF’s IT department obtained by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay cites last week’s decision by the Florida Board of Governors to approve an emergency regulation to “block access to applications and social media platforms that may put personal information and national security at risk.”
Most everything on the internet harvests demographic information about users, but TikTok has recently come under fire over concerns that the Chinese government could order the app’s developer ByteDance to hand over user data.
The email said USF is implementing measures affecting students, faculty and staff who will no longer be able to use the apps on university-owned devices or networks.
“Access to these applications through USF’s wired and wireless networks from personal devices will be blocked unless an exception is granted under the regulation,” the email added.
Other apps being blocked by USF’s campuses in Tampa and St. Petersburg include Chinese messaging app Tencent QQ, Russian social network VKontakte, and the Russian cybersecurity software Kaspersky.
Other Florida schools that implemented TikTok bans today include Florida A&M, the University of Florida and Florida State University.
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2023.