Students and professors have been considering the possibility of IU banning TikTok from campus Wi-Fi. Purdue was the first university in Indiana to ban the app from its Wi-Fi network, but many universities nationwide have done the same, such as Florida State University, Texas A&M, and University of Oklahoma.
Many freshmen, who are required to live on-campus and therefore primarily use campus Wi-Fi, say they would be upset to see a ban on the popular platform. Some use it to unwind before bed and others start scrolling first thing in the morning. Others say banning an app designed to spread opinions and information is in bad taste.
Students react to potential university-wide ban on TikTok.
The issue at the heart of the matter is data privacy. Companies and apps like Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok all engage in data mining to some degree. However, since TikTok is a Chinese owned company, lawmakers and university administrators are growing increasingly wary of what China might be doing with so much data on U.S. citizens.
However, some experts say that China is much less of a threat to national security than the U.S. government makes it out to be. Professor Mike Krautkraemer teaches East Asian studies at Butler University. He sees the potential ban as being a political move.
Mike Krautkraemer gives context to the international relations between China and the United States.
The truth is, Meta and Google are just as capable of whatever think China could do, as the two companies collect just as much data as TikTok. However, Meta and Google are American-owned companies, which is much less threatening to the American government because it can create sanctions to protect data privacy, whereas it has little influence over Chinese domestic affairs.
If the university does ban TikTok, there could be a slew of lawsuits challenging the ban under First Amendment grounds. Organizations like the ACLU, says Krautkraemer, are prominent advocates for free speech and regularly help litigate cases that attempt to chill or abridge speech.
If IU bans TikTok, then the university will almost certainly face backlash from students, professors, and civil liberties organizations. Whether or not the university bans the app, the debate of a nationwide ban still looms in Congress.
