A judge in Texas has ruled in favor of the state’s ban on TikTok being used on government devices and networks, dismissing a challenge from an organization that argued the ban went against the First Amendment.

The lawsuit, filed in July by The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, had argued the ban on official devices – which extends to public universities – was impeding academic freedom and compromising on the ability of professors to teach and do research about the social media app.

The Knight Institute filed a complaint on behalf of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, an organization of scholars and researchers who examine the effects of technology on society. The lawsuit also mentioned a member of the group, a professor at the University of North Texas, who was unable to give students certain in-class assignments and had to halt some research projects due to the ban.

On Monday, Judge Robert L. Pitman from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that the state’s prohibition of official devices does not restrict speech. He also acknowledged that public university faculty and state employees still have the freedom to use TikTok on their personal devices.

Pitman also said while he agrees the ban prevents certain university faculty from using state-provided devices and networks to do research and teach about TikTok, the ban was also a “reasonable restriction on access to TikTok in light of Texas’s concerns.”

Many Western governments are concerned that the widely used social media app, which is owned by China’s ByteDance company, may share sensitive information with the Chinese government or be used to spread false information. As a result, numerous states, Congress, and universities in the United States have implemented measures to limit the use of TikTok on government devices.

The decision was disappointing, according to Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight Institute who presented the argument for the preliminary injunction to Judge Pitman last month.

Jaffer stated that limiting the study and instruction of a significant global communication platform is not a reasonable or constitutionally acceptable approach to addressing valid worries about TikTok’s data-gathering policies.

Pitman pointed out that the state’s restriction of TikTok on official devices is more limited than Montana’s attempt to prohibit the app throughout the entire state. A judge at the federal level stopped Montana’s comprehensive ban in late November, only one month before it was supposed to go into effect. A final decision will be made at a later time.

TikTok did not provide an immediate response to a comment request.

Source: wral.com