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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

#121

Post by vineyardmike »

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.

You can just say that Chinese nationals without residency in the US can’t own land. Canada did something similar for foreigners and the legal defensibility of it seemed pretty good based on lawyers talking about it.

Basically, you can say (in legalese) that X group can’t be the controller of the land. They can open trusts or LLCs or whatever… but it’s transitive so their trust can’t name them as the beneficiaries and their LLCs can’t honor them as shareholders.

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

#122

Post by 908B64B197 »

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…

Makes me wonder how and why he got the job

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/06/02/tiktok-apolog...

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

#125

Post by rcme »

jeanofthedead wrote: post #118
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.

Same. Just don't give apps all of the permissions. TikTok doesn't have access to my camera, photo library, microphone, local network, location, etc. It's not that hard.

Do you also forbid giving TikTok access to your brain? That’s the main issue here.

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

#126

Post by titanomachy »

jesprenj wrote: post #110

Offtopic, sharing a story: Our gymnasium pays for fortiguard so that they can block games on the web. This includes lichess.org etc. This is a country with non ascii latin letters in the alphabet, but despite this many domains were falsely banned for being an IDN homograph attack. Cracked minecraft clients are stored on a shared network drive and LAN multiplayer can still be played during boring informatics lessons.…

In case anyone else was confused, the word "gymnasium" is used for "high school" in some countries (e.g. Germany).

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

#127

Post by twobitshifter »

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.

Governor Abbott is supporting that bill at the moment

https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-banning-texas-land-purch...

Yet, Aramco (Saudi Arabia) purchased the largest oil refinery in the US under his watch. https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/01/investing/saudi-arabia-buys...

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

#128

Post by eddsh1994 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #52
eddsh1994 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s not just political points; for example I’m not allowed the app on my personal devices as part of a work contract if I use the same device for anything work related (web emails etc). Nothing to gain there politically. I’m pretty sure Facebook doesn’t send your clipboard to the US government, anyway?

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

#129

Post by randombits0 »

rcme wrote: post #125
jeanofthedead wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Just don't give apps all of the permissions. TikTok doesn't have access to my camera, photo library, microphone, local network, location, etc. It's not that hard.

Do you also forbid giving TikTok access to your brain? That’s the main issue here.

Dang, do you know how bad you sound? TikTok may be crack cocaine but it’s just media, protected expression, and beyond consideration for censorship. You let these bastards turn off this app and they will come back and do it again and again.

Mind cancer!

For the good of national security!

Save the children!

What a bunch of rubbish. Go back to school! Wait, you’re screwed there too!

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

#130

Post by marmetio »

zugi wrote: post #22

Banning the app on government (including university) devices is one thing. Blocking the website is another. Perhaps someone who sets UT policies doesn't understand the difference?

Blocking a website on government networking devices is the same thing. The goal is to deny the Chinese government access to Americans via government-owned equipment.
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