Universities across Alabama are debating whether to ban TikTok access from school-issued devices and campus wi-fi networks, following Auburn’s decision to ban TikTok on Dec. 16 and Jacksonville State’s on Jan. 19.
Both universities cited Alabama governor Kay Ivey’s Dec. 12 memo recommending its ban on all government issued devices and networks, which called the app a “growing security risk” due to its Chinese parent company ByteDance and the data it collects from its users
“Protecting Alabama’s IT infrastructure from cyber threats is vital to ensuring the safety and success of our State”, Ivey said. “The computer devices and networks used by our state government house significant amounts of Alabamians’ sensitive data. They also ensure the proper functioning of numerous automated government functions.”
Since both Auburn and Jacksonville State are public universities, their networks are owned by the Alabama government and the state can recommend that they take actions on it. The University of Alabama has yet to take any action against TikTok.
While data mining concerns are nothing new in an era of search engines and social media, experts like Samford social media professor Nia Johnson believe that the scrutiny is over TikTok’s ownership, not necessarily its practices.
“My opinion is that nearly everything we do electronically ends up being data mined, but TikTok is getting the attention and concern now because of its tie to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” Johnson said. “ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, already has a well-publicized history of data privacy violations in the U.S., and despite the company’s claims that they would change their data collection procedures, not much seems to have improved.”
Some students don’t understand the negative attention because of the prevalence of Chinese-made devices in America.
“Half the things sitting in the United States are made over [in China],” freshman William Guthrie said.
“If they wanted to get information on us, they very easily could do that. They build the phones that we have, they build the computers that we have. Banning TikTok, I don’t think would change anything if they wanted to get information.”
A Samford TikTok ban wouldn’t be unprecedented. The university has a ban on YikYak, a social media site that allows users to post anonymous messages to others nearby, on campus-owned wi-fi networks. The ban hasn’t had much of an effect on usage because students can still use it on their personal mobile data plans.
“Samford technically already bans YikYak, and the perspective is that it’s banned mostly because of that app’s inherent toxicity,” Johnson said. “So, there is a precedent of banning apps, and proof of Samford‘s commitment to data protection through the widespread use of two-factor authentication [Duo Mobile], so I can feasibly see a Samford TikTok ban happening. I imagine a TikTok ban would have the same effect as the YikYak ban: people will complain, but still access it via cell service rather than Wi-Fi.”
Students like Guthrie echo Johnson’s belief that a ban would be controversial yet ineffective.
“If Samford did something like it, I would be a little surprised, mostly because I don’t see the negative impact on it,” Guthrie said. “I can also see where their concern comes in because they did a similar thing with YikYak and taking that off the wi-fi, but with technology now and most students being able to use data, it wouldn’t be much of an impact.”
For others, such as freshman Shelby Bauerkemper, it’s a matter of personal freedom and rights.
“If it were me personally, I would be really irritated about it because, what right do they have to take away your freedom to use whatever apps you want to?” Bauerkemper said. “It just doesn’t seem okay.”
