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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

#151

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

kris_wayton wrote: post #146
UncleMeat wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But like... what cybersecurity threat is there to using TikTok while on UT wifi? The concerns with TikTok are always around data collection and propaganda, not it pwning other stuff on the same network with malicious network traffic?

Especially given that TikTok will work fine on devices that are connected to the cell network and not wifi. I can't tell what is being protected, exactly.

This is like saying, if students can assault students outside of UT Austin - I don't know why we should ban students assaulting each other inside of UT Austin.

If you believe you're doing the right thing in some cases - you don't give up because you can't do the right thing in all cases.

UT Austin can be in the wrong. I'm just saying - simply because UT Austin banned TikTok doesn't mean they're doing it for censorship reasons. There could be other reasons...

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

#152

Post by dsfyu404ed »

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...

They're already there. You just don't know it because the algo creates a textbook filter bubble to keep you happy.

This is one of TikTok's greatest strengths as an entertainment platform (compare to Youtube or whatever). People never see shit they'd be Outraged(TM) at keeping their user experience generally positive, or if not generally positive at least basically never negative.

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

#153

Post by boomboomsubban »

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 wouldn't prevent bots spamming views for ad revenue.

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

#154

Post by filoleg »

bena wrote: post #104
ALittleLight wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like TikTok or are concerned about the Chinese government collecting information on you, those are excellent reasons for you not to use TikTok. But what do your preferences have to do with the freedom of other people?

But it's also UT-Austin's network. They should have some say in what traffic the allow on it.

You are explaining why UT-Austin should have the power of say in what traffic they allow on their network, which I agree with they should have. It can be used for many legitimate things, including blocking malicious endpoints associated with DDoS, blocking websites with known malware, stuff that very negatively affects the campus network infra, etc.

However, you aren't explaining why UT-Austin should get to decide which apps (that don't affect network operations or campus device security) people can use on their personal devices on UT-Austin network.

Sure, it technically falls under the very large umbrella of "allowing traffic". No one is disputing that they de-facto have that power. I believe the original question was more along the lines of "how can they reasonably justify doing so without jumping to non-sequeters and bs excuses".

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

#155

Post by AlbertCory »

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.

The legal term is "real party in interest (RPI) "

There are already laws regarding naming the RPI:

[1] https://definitions.uslegal.com/r/real-party-in-interest/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_party_in_interest

[3] https://www.projectjurisprudence.com/2017/08/whos-real-party...

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

#156

Post by filoleg »

flappyeagle wrote: post #93
tarotuser wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 com…

I would be more sympathetic to this line of argument if the CCP weren't currently banning every single US-based social network. Reciprocation is the only sensible response. This shouldn't be about race, or even data. It should be about trade policy.

Well, CCP is an extremely authoritarian state, and plenty of their constituents would love to be able to access western apps/services.

The cool thing is that US, for all its faults, is not like that, and shouldn't aspire to be like that. If the US constituents want to access TikTok, they should be able to, unless it poses some actual danger. An example of such danger would be what led to the recent ban on Huawei equipment in the networking infra, which I fully support.

But TikTok ain't it, and this is just pure "well those nasty guys did this nasty thing, so we are gonna do the same nasty thing because uhhhh they did that thing!"

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

#157

Post by rcme »

UncleMeat wrote: post #139
rcme wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Obviously that isn't the main issue here, since disabling TikTok on UT wifi does very little to stop people from actually using it.

So then what does disabling it accomplish?

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

#158

Post by UncleMeat »

switchbak wrote: post #141
UncleMeat wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But like... what cybersecurity threat is there to using TikTok while on UT wifi? The concerns with TikTok are always around data collection and propaganda, not it pwning other stuff on the same network with malicious network traffic?

I'm no security professional, but I am familiar with the ultra crap security standards of many institutions. It's really just removing a drop from the ocean of potential risks, but doesn't seem that outlandish given the nature of TikTok and where it comes from.

But like, what risk? I'm serious. TikTok poses no risk to UT's networks.

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

#159

Post by s0ulphire »

LesZedCB wrote: post #112
mullingitover wrote: post #108

All this really does is add a three second step to their students' day: - Turn off WiFi - Open TikTok on 5G connection Everyone talking about VPNs is overthinking this.

and then once you realize how much data it eats, you'll see why they wanted to disable it in the first place

Serious question, does anyone really struggle with staying under their data limit anymore? I pay $28AUD a month and get 85GB, and I use about 20 of that per month?

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

#160

Post by vkou »

flappyeagle wrote: post #114
vkou wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if they round up and arrest political and religious dissidents, we should do the same? We can't lose the repression arms race to China, after all... Firing a missile is an external action. This is not an external question, this is a question of domestic information policy . It's hypocritical for a nation championing free speech to have a restrictive domestic information policy.

Economic sanctions is an external action. Tariffs are a thing that exist. It's not by any means "repression", so please don't make the argument lame by taking it there.

I'm pretty sure you were the one who took the argument into this direction, by equating banning a chat app to launching missiles - waging war.

I'm not asking us to hold ourselves to China's standards - that's the lowest bar in the universe. I'm asking us to hold ourselves to our own standards.

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