Georgia public colleges ban TikTok on school-owned devices

Spokesperson Kristina Torres confirmed the transfer Tuesday, after the Republican Kemp on Thursday grew to become certainly one of quite a few governors to ban TikTok from state computer systems. Due to Georgia legislation, Kemp usually cannot give direct orders to public universities.

Chancellor Sonny Perdue mentioned in a memo that state-owned gadgets can solely be used to entry the packages for legislation enforcement and safety functions.

Perdue mentioned the scholars, school and employees might nonetheless entry the websites on their very own computer systems and telephones, or these owned by university-related foundations, so long as staff do not additionally use these gadgets to entry private info or delicate info associated to college enterprise.

Many Georgia universities use TikTok to courtroom potential new college students and talk with present college students and athletic followers. Not less than 20 public Georgia universities and four-year faculties seem to have TikTok accounts, though some have by no means posted. Valdosta State College, for instance, seems to have eight separate accounts.

Some public universities in different states are barring college students from utilizing college Wi-Fi networks to entry TikTok on their very own gadgets. Torres did not instantly reply to a query about whether or not that might occur in Georgia.

Congress is shifting to ban TikTok from most U.S. authorities gadgets below a spending invoice unveiled Tuesday, with necessities for the Biden administration to ban most makes use of of TikTok or another app created by its proprietor, ByteDance Ltd.

A spokesperson for TikTok known as the bans a “political gesture” that isn’t wanted to guard nationwide safety as a result of TikTok is creating safety and information privateness plans to safe the platform within the U.S.

Kemp and others say international governments might be able to entry customers’ private info or use the packages for spying operations.