The US Government Just Banned TikTok, Joining States and Universities In Putting Influencers Out on the Streets

Last night POTUS signed the $1.7T spending bill into law.

Anddd Zuckerbot and Evan Spiegel (the founder of Snap) are fully bricked up. That's because the bill included the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, which is exactly what it sounds like. TikTok (a Chinese company) will be banned on all Federal Government devices, since, ya know, it's probably (read: definitely) putting more than 100 million US users' data (and by that I mean literally all the data on your phone… just ask Joe Rogan) on the express train to Beijing.

State governments have been passing similar measures banning TikTok on official devices. At least 14 states have signed bills into law or passed executive orders. Governors are pointing to privacy and security issues… but they're probably just butthurt that they have to hold a real job while some shithead in high school makes 7-figures doing that Meghan Trainor dance.

The bans are raising some questions, though. Like, say, does it apply to a state's public university system?

Some administrators, that probably got stuffed in lockers as kids, think so. The fun police at The University of Oklahoma and Auburn have banned TikTok outright on the school's Wi-Fi.

NBC - When some students return to their college campuses after the holidays, they may find themselves unable to log in to their favorite app.

The University of Oklahoma and Auburn University in Alabama announced this month that they would ban access to TikTok from campus Wi-Fi, in accordance with their respective governors’ executive orders to restrict the app on state-owned devices and networks. 

(Imagine the world without TikTok on college campuses…)

Of course, universities can't stop students from using their (parents') data plans to access the app. And TikTok probably isn't losing sleep over some dorks at the IRS watching ripped TikToks on IG Reels instead of going directly to the source. But it could be a slippery slope given US-China relations and a lot of lawmakers calling for an outright ban of the app.

So, please, I beg all of my colleagues that keep the lights on around here via huge TikTok accounts… PLEASE DIVERSIFY. I wouldn't last a week living under a bridge.

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