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UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

texastribune.org

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Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#51

Post by Nextgrid »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #19
tarotuser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say "Use a VPN"... However on multiple VPN providers, Tiktok blocks those endpoints. Instead of the Tiktok feed, you get a rude 403 error for any page. Tiktok really REALLY wants to know your real IP address. (edit: this comment pertains to the web page through a browser, not the Tiktok app. I did not test the app+vpn.)

Or IP addresses associated with VPNs are often found to do things that violate TikTok's ToS.

Read-only access can still be allowed. I suspect the "violation of ToS" is simply privacy - they don't want to serve traffic to someone they can't stalk.

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#52

Post by Nextgrid »

eddsh1994 wrote: post #34
temende wrote: post #18

So if they care about data harvesting, are they also blocking Facebook?

Data harvesting to China is what these people care about

It's a move designed to garner political points and take advantage of the China-related fear-mongering. They don't actually give a shit about your privacy otherwise they would indeed block Facebook and other equally-malicious US-based spyware operators.

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#53

Post by CamperBob2 »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #23
VLM wrote: post #7

The new satanic panic.

Why should the US allow the CCP to have free rein over user's data when the CCP bans US Tech companies from operating in China for the same reason?

Why shouldn't it be up to the user? Who asked the government?

This is not how the Internet was supposed to work.

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#54

Post by kube-system »

dylan604 wrote: post #46
kube-system wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they can just toggle the wifi on their phone. When I was in school, wifi wasn't provided and you were prohibited from bringing your own AP. And there were plenty of applications being firewalled.

I was wondering if LTE was also blocked for some reason causing everyone that be forced to use WiFi. Clearly, that's not the case. Are people unable to make the logical jump that WiFi isn't needed on mobile? Even so, that still meet's whatever UT's goal is that it's not on their network. Edit: clearly, the sarcasm intended in wondering if someone was blocking LTE wasn't self-evident. Followed immediately by "Clearly…

UT-Austin doesn't operate commercial cell phone service, and jamming cell phone service is illegal.

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#55

Post by rchaud »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #5

I don't care about this kind of stuff as much as a lot of people do. Hopefully they also start blocking China from buying up USA farmland and housing.

A proposal to stop the purchase of property by nameless numbered entities ("123 LLC") would have my full support.

It's not like foreign buyers put down "China Inc" on the purchase forms.

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#56

Post by rchaud »

tarotuser wrote: post #11
mybhslaptop wrote: post #3

High schoolers are used to having VPNs for school, time for college students to do that too. Especially since on-campus students have to live with managed WiFi in dorms too. It's unfortunate to see this political censorship affect grown adults who can make their own decisions - but just happen to be at a state university.

You can say "Use a VPN"... However on multiple VPN providers, Tiktok blocks those endpoints. Instead of the Tiktok feed, you get a rude 403 error for any page. Tiktok really REALLY wants to know your real IP address. (edit: this comment pertains to the web page through a browser, not the Tiktok app. I did not test the app+vpn.)

TikTok is hardly the only service that blocks what it thinks is VPN traffic. I only ever get captcha completion requests when I try to access sites via VPN.

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#57

Post by snapcaster »

jrexilius wrote: post #14

A good, albeit somewhat impotent, move. The companies wont yank it from the app stores in the US for fear of reprisal, but that is the better next step.

Why is this good? why are people suddenly down to ban software? I don't use tiktok and never will but seeing all this discussion about how it should be banned is depressing.

If US companies want it to be less popular how about they compete and make a better product? Why are so many people carrying water for social media companies?

To get ahead of the criticism I'll likely get for this comment: I don't think tiktok/china do anything that US companies and every other social media platform have already been doing for years. Why ban tiktok and not every other social media app?

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#58

Post by pavlov »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #44
guessbest wrote: post #15

> In a statement, a representative from TikTok said they are disappointed by the news. > "We're disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok," spokesperson Jamal Brown wrote. Regardless of you stance on Texas and Texans and politics, the above is a pretty funny…

Obviously someone should've just hosted right-wing talking heads on TikTok so that UT-Austin could be sued under Texas' own anti-censorship law: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/texas-bans-onlin...

I’m sure there are plenty of right-wing influencers on TikTok. It’s a service that locks you tightly into an algorithmic bubble once it has an idea of what kind of content turns you on. Alt-right TikTok in Texas must be “interesting.”

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#59

Post by snapcaster »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #23
VLM wrote: post #7

The new satanic panic.

Why should the US allow the CCP to have free rein over user's data when the CCP bans US Tech companies from operating in China for the same reason?

Why should you get a say in what applications americans decide to use?

Re: UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks

#60

Post by tarotuser »

throwaway29812 wrote: post #28
tarotuser wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Citing the very real and horrible history of ethnic discrimination to dismiss valid criticism of an authoritarian state is odd. It's also exactly what the CCP does. https://twitter.com/nathanlawkc/status/1464891227694850049 https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/stopasianhate-chinese-dias...

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at.

Looking narrowly at Tiktok, it doesn't really capture any more than what Google/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Linkedin all would. And regulators and orgs are OK with those systems hoovering up all the data they can. But when Tiktok showed up, it's the "China Restaurant Syndrome" all over again, with breathless scares about the evil Chinese stealing our data!

Yes, China is a communist party-led state, according to the CIA world factbook. Yes, they have terrible abuses in their own history. Yes, they tamp down dissent via black-bagging and other abuses. Yes, they have and continue to do a genocide on the Uighurs (Muslims) in the country.

The US peoples (separate from the government) also has a pretty bad case of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese sentiment. It was only a few days ago that some 50ish year old white lady stabbed an Asian 18 year old Indiana University student on the city bus, while stating to police “it would be one less person to blow up our country”. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/us/indiana-university-student...

This isn't a case of whataboutism. What the Chinese government are doing to their own people is abhorrent, and likely worthy of being charged with crimes against humanity. AND people who hate Chinese for being Chinese heritage are also just as wrong. (And while we're at it, the USA has done its share of abhorrent stuff that it too should be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.)

It may be simple to color every situation with black or white. But there's a great deal of nuance here. Why isn't UT-Austin also blocking Google or Facebook and related properties? Is that because they're USA based companies? Why only Tiktok? Because where I am, it appears to be founded in Sinophobia, pure and simple.

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