[Air-L] [External] Re: TikTok Bans and Research

[Mark Nunes]

I am less concerned about the potential impact on my personal research,
since my laptop is not state issued, but I do have major concerns about the
impact these bans will have on the courses I teach.

The NC ban, which came out as an executive order
<https://governor.nc.gov/media/3561/open> at the end of the day yesterday,
"prohibits the use of TikTok and WeChat on state agency information
technology systems." At a minimum, "state agency employees may not install
or otherwise utilize the TikTok or WeChat applications on state-issued
devices and must remove any existing instances of the TikTok and WeChat
applications from state-issued devices..." and "State agency employees may
not access any TikTok or WeChat website on a state-issued device." There
will be some path for granting an "exception from the prohibition [for]
legitimate purposes," but no sense on how or when that will happen. There
order offers more questions than answers for me (Does "state agency
information technology systems" include campus wifi? Does no access mean I
cannot show a TikTok in class that our readings for the day reference? What
about including links to TikToks in my CMS?) All of this is coming out just
a couple of days before the start of classes, so I have no idea if I am
going to have to scrap a third of my syllabus (teaching a class called
What's Trending: Popular Culture in a Platform Society") before 2pm on
Tuesday....

Mark Nunes
Professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
Appalachian State University


On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 1:16 PM Arditi, David M via Air-L <
air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

> Yes, I know there are workarounds. I can access from my personal phone or
> tablet. The issue seems to be about academic freedom and being able to
> conduct research on things, even if the state doesn't like it.
>
> David
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aram Sinnreich <aram at american.edu>
> Sent: Friday, January 13, 2023 11:41 AM
> To: Arditi, David M <darditi at uta.edu>
> Cc: aoir list <air-l at aoir.org>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] TikTok Bans and Research
>
> [External]
>
> At the risk of asking the obvious, have you tried accessing the service
> via a (non-university) VPN?
>
> > On Jan 13, 2023, at 12:30 PM, Arditi, David M via Air-L <
> air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
> >
> > External Email: Use caution with links and attachments.
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I just realized that I can no longer access TikTok from work computers.
> This is in compliance with a policy about TikTok in Texas. Since the
> American federal government and other states are banning it as well, I'm
> wondering if anyone has figured out an effective workaround. This is a big
> barrier to conducting academic research on TikTok, social media, or just
> the cultural world. Any suggestions would be useful.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > David
> >
> > Dr. David Arditi
> > Associate Professor of Sociology
> > Director of the Center for Theory
> > University of Texas at Arlington
> >
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