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‘The Cyberguy’ Kurt Knutsson breaks down third-party supervision over TikTok and widespread collegiate bans on the app.
Colleges across America are banning access to TikTok on university-owned Wi-Fi networks as national security concerns with the Chinese-owned company’s app.
The actions against TikTok that have been taken by colleges largely in response to executive orders coming from several governors in America.
During a speech to the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on Dec. 2, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that Chinese officials have broad access to TikTok, which allows them to “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray said.
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A teenager taps the TikTok logo on a smartphone. (Photo by Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Governors of Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho, Maryland, Montana and South Dakota all signed executive orders which limit the ability for individuals to access TikTok while using state-owned internet networks.
Jake Denton, a research associate at the Heritage Foundation’s Tech Policy Center, told FOX Business that he thinks the move by universities is a step in the right direction, stating that TikTok has a mass amount of data on everyday Americans.
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“I mean, a lot of people are familiar with the experience where something pops up, whether it be an advertisement or a link, and you click on it and it feels as though you’re within Safari. They’ve replicated kind of that interface, but you’re actually within TikTok’s own browser and they’re logging everything in that environment. So that prompted you to log into something. They have your password, they have your username. So it’s, it’s that level of concern,” Denton said.
One aspect of TikTok that concerns Denton is its location tracking feature, adding that the Chinese government could use it to find whoever they want as long as they use the popular app.
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University of Texas Austin campus at sunset. (iStock)
“This really causes a concern about real world intervention, you know, in Chinese intelligence capacities. If they know you always go to, you know, a bar on a Tuesday night, they know they can find you there,” Denton said.
Here’s a list of colleges that have banned students from accessing TikTok on Wi-Fi networks:
Texas:
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Alabama:
Oklahoma:
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Students walk on campus between classes at the University of Oklahoma on March 11, 2015 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Brett Deering/Getty Images)
Idaho:
Maryland:
Montana:
There does, however, appear to be a loophole through which students on campus can still access TikTok.
Cole Rather, a student at Texas A&M University, told Fox News Digital that he agrees with the ban, but states that students can simply disconnect from the university’s Wi-Fi network to access the app.
“The funny thing is, though, if I’m on to talk on my phone on campus, I’ll just disconnect from Wi-Fi networks with data, you know? I mean, it’s that simple,” Rather says of using the app. “if that’s what we need to do to keep from the Chinese government spying on us or whatever it might be with algorithms and then I’m good with it.”
Adam Sabes is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Adam.Sabes@fox.com and on Twitter @asabes10.
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2023 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.