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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

#61

Post by rchaud »

throwaway29812 wrote: post #37
remarkEon wrote: post #2

>"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. "We're especially sorry to see the unintended consequences of these rushed policies beginning to impact universities' ability to share information, recruit students, and build…

Quite incredible he can go from DoD spokesperson to working at TikTok. I guess there's no law against it, but incredible personal choice.

A job's a job. A DOD spokesperson isn't receiving any confidential information. Their job is political, just as it would be at Facebook, if they chose to work there.

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

#62

Post by snapcaster »

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...

Is it possible to say anything positive or even neutral about China without a comment like this? Do you respond to every mention of the US with links of all the war crimes?

Can you address the content of the comment you're responding to? Can you demonstrate that TikTok causes more harm than MSG?

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

#63

Post by rchaud »

Nextgrid wrote: post #51
boomboomsubban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Read-only access would still be enough to launch DDOS attacks. I've never heard of any social media service offering read-only access to logged in users.

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

#65

Post by rchaud »

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…

LTE is provided by national cell networks that aren't state-funded, so the law probably doesn't apply to them. Universities usually administer their own networks (at least they did in my rural uni 10 years ago), so they would have to comply with state laws.

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

#66

Post by 1MachineElf »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #40
sdfghjkjhvgcfdx wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

tell him what?

If I had to guess, it would probably be some revelation about Bill Gates being the biggest private owner of farmland in the US: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/05/bill-g...

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

#67

Post by pessimizer »

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…

That's pretty easy to do; to characterize nationalist censorship in terms of trivialities. I could literally use being "built for advertisers to push products and services through ads and influencers" to ban television, newspapers, and every social network.

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

#68

Post by rchaud »

thot_experiment wrote: post #36
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.

Hey, I learned a lot about cybersecurity working around restrictions on the computers in high school! First it's your school, next it's your government, it's important that kids learn these skills so they have the basics of getting around authoritarian bullshit.

I don't think that's going to happen anymore, everything is too locked down. My 'cybersecurity' education came from having my computer infected with all types of malware in the '00s.

In the mobile era, nearly everything is sanitized and sandboxed. The idea of needing to get all your software through a centralized, vendor-controlled app store would be absurd in the '00s. Yet here we are.

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

#69

Post by Quillbert182 »

rchaud wrote: post #55
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.

It seems to me like it might be a good idea to require citizenship to create an LLC.

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

#70

Post by bena »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #53
Aaronstotle wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Would you rather know if it was up to the government or not know?

Because the case with TikTok is that we do not know what the Chinese government is going to do with whatever it collects from the app. Or even if they do. Or anything really.

Now, while I think banning TikTok's traffic on the campus network is more of a stunt than anything worthwhile. I do see the argument from banning TikTok and just about any other non-essential app from government issued mobile hardware.

That's an area where you'd want to have as little possible surface area exposed as you can.

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