This Florida College Wants Their Students To Stop Using TikTok & Here's What The State Thinks
The college wrote a letter to their students.
The University of Florida. Right: Marco Rubio.
The University of Florida (UF) is warning its students about the security risks they feel TikTok provides. This comes after a bill that was introduced by Florida Senator Marco Rubio to ban TikTok in the U.S.
UF's Vice President, Elias G. Eldayrie, sent a letter to all students calling the social media app a "national security concern" and advising them to not use it.
The letter also noted TikTok's privacy policy, quoting that it "may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information… such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content."
Some American politicians feel the social media app is a security threat because the parent company of the social media app, ByteDance, is based in China.
According to Senator Rubio, the company is required by Chinese law to make data from the app available to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
However, TikTok's Privacy Policy states that they are required to seek permission from users before any data is collected.
Rubio's ANTI-SOCIAL CCP legislation "would protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern," the Senator's press release reads.
Though there is not a TikTok ban for Florida citizens, nor for college students using it in the state, federal government devices are not allowed to use the video app. This comes after legislation passed last month, as reported by the Washington Post.
There aren't any consequences if UF students keep using the video app, but they are encouraged to delete it.