Tennessee considers banning TikTok on college campus networks

The Tennessee Legislature is considering a bill that would ban TikTok from public college and university Wi-Fi. The bill is set to go before the Tennessee House Higher Education Subcommittee on March 6, after it cleared the Senate last week.

House Bill 1445 doesn’t name TikTok outright. But by prohibiting non-American video platforms on public institution networks, it would effectively ban the Chinese-owned app from public university servers.

Tennessee is not the first state to take action against the world’s most-downloaded app. Many states have enacted TikTok bans on government-issued devices, for fear of data being shared with the Chinese government. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, an internet technology company headquartered in Beijing.

In a video, TikToker “carterpcs” shared his doubts of a widespread ban.

“It would have so many unintended consequences. A ton of people’s careers and businesses are predicated on TikTok now. And not to get political, but I feel like a lot of politicians care more about getting reelected than data security,” he says. “And banning a whole generation’s favorite app is not a good way to get reelected.”

The social media platform has over one billion monthly active users worldwide. And according to the Pew Research Center, almost 70% of American teenagers say that have used TikTok.

For public university students, access via campus Wi-Fi isn’t looking good. Similar bills are already in place in states like Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas. Public university students in those states, who have experienced the ban firsthand, have already expressed their displeasure — turning to where else, but TikTok itself.

TikTok user and University of Texas at Austin student “julietsiegel” shared a video with text reading: “When my schools bans TikTok from the Wi-Fi.” In the background, the selected sound screams “I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I can’t do it. Lord, I can’t do it.” The video has over 16,000 views.