Many colleges including the University of Florida, the University of Oklahoma and Idaho State University are speaking out against TikTok and even blocking the app from their school Wi-Fi and school-issued devices. The reason for this given by these schools always being the same, “TikTok’s supposed security ‘risks.”

Given the curated algorithms that TikTok has, everyone knows it’s extremely easy to get lost and end up scrolling for hours on end which like any other social media app, can interrupt school and studying time for students. After first learning about TikTok being blocked on college campuses, my initial thought was that these schools are just using their supposed ‘security concerns with data being compromised’ as an excuse to get their attending students off the time-consuming app.

TikTok being downloaded on college-issued devices seems to be a bigger concern to colleges. Some schools explained that they have information privacy concerns since TikTok is known for sharing users’ data with other companies explained in The Guardian. If you are active on social media, you would know that many social media apps, including TikTok, uses third-party applications to track your data and search habits and sell them to other companies. This is why when you google the shoe you’ve been thinking about purchasing, suddenly an ad for that exact shoe will pop up on your Pinterest later on that day. The truth is, this is just how social media and ad systems work, there isn’t any harm coming to you unless there is some sort of security breach within the company.

I think it’s hard to dismiss the fact that only southern colleges are preventing TikTok usage. The chances are high that notoriously right-winged and older people that are in charge of making rules for these colleges, are probably the same ones believing the Facebook posts ranting about how the app is selling your personal information to ‘Chinese’ companies. This is a common claim which has been disproven and addressed multiple times by TikTok.

Panic isn’t fully in effect yet at these universities because there are still ways for students to use TikTok. They can still use their personal cell data or hotspots, so given that fact, the blocking of TikTok on campuses is pretty much pointless. The only reason that these southern schools must have for banning the app is that they simply hate the app enjoyed by so many being used on campus. Altogether there are a million things wrong with social media as a whole but attempting to take one app away from campuses is not only pointless, but steers applying students away from these schools, I personally will be avoiding these colleges like the plague.

The University of Florida is one of the only schools in Florida possibly banning TikTok, sending out an email to students advising them against using the popular app. This is important for Robinson and all Florida students who are currently applying to in-state colleges to know when deciding where to get their education. You want your college experience to be enjoyable and having an app you love prevented or blocked by the university you might attend is a huge factor to take into consideration when applying. As of right now, thankfully no other Florida universities seem to be following the lead of other colleges fully blocking the app, but this is something to remember when researching schools, you are thinking about attending.