Texas TikTok ban challenged for threatening 'academic freedom'

Lawsuit filed Thursday says Governor Greg Abbott's ban undermines research and teaching at public universities.

A ban on TikTok on public devices and networks in Texas was challenged Thursday by First Amendment lawyers, who said the law violates the Constitution by limiting research and teaching in the public universities.

Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, whose members include University of Texas professors who claim their work was compromised after they lost access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi and university-issued computers.

The Knight First Amendment Institute, which works on free speech cases, wants Texas and other states to exempt university professors from the bans.

"The Supreme Court has identified academic freedom as a particular First Amendment concern," said Ramya Krishnan, an attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. "With so many Americans on TikTok, it's important that researchers can study the impact this platform has on public discourse and society at large."

Government officials Greg Abbott, who announced the Texas ban in December, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit said Jacqueline Vickery, an associate professor at the University of North Texas and a digital media specialist, had been forced to "suspend research projects and modify her research curriculum, alter her teaching methodology and eliminate material from course" due to the ban.

Ms. Vickery was previously able to collect and analyze large numbers of TikTok videos for her work, which focuses on how young people use digital and social media for informal learning and activism, but she can no longer do so on her university-owned computers or internet networks. , depending on the suit. The Texas ban also appears to extend to his personal cellphone based on his use of college email and other apps there, the lawsuit said.

Mrs. Vickery said in an interview that she hasn't had access to TikTok since returning from college from winter break, even for an assignment in which she wanted her students to read the privacy terms on the site. Tik Tok. The effect of the ban on her classes and research has been "really difficult," especially since she doesn't have a personal laptop, she said.

"It's not just an app that young people use for fun, but there's a lot of research going on with and through the site as well as a lot of education", Ms. Vickery said "It doesn't appear that the ban really took into account the consequences of the fallout."

Ms. Vickery is part of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, a group of academics, civil society researchers and journalists formed last year to promote "the right to study the impact of technology on society".

Whether banning TikTok violates free speech rights has also been raised in two Montana lawsuits, both funded by the company. The state has a state ban on TikTok, the first of its kind, which will go into effect January 1. The company is not involved in the lawsuit in Texas.