Texas’ TikTok Ban On State-Owned Devices Upheld By Federal Judge

Judge Robert L. Pitman ruled against the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

A law that bans the use of the social media platform TikTok on state-owned devices in Texas was upheld in federal court on Dec. 11 from a challenge that it violated the Constitution’s First Amendment.

According to The Associated Press, Judge Robert L. Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled against the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

The institute argued that the ban violated the First Amendment by prohibiting the use of TikTok on public university Wi-Fi. But, in his determination, Pitman stated that the state’s ban on official devices is not a restraint on speech and said that faculty at the public university, as well as state employees, could access the platform on their own devices.

When the institute initially filed the lawsuit in July, it argued that the ban on the school’s official devices was preventing academic freedom and compromising the ability of the professors at the Knight First Amendment Institute to teach and conduct their research about TikTok.

The Hill reported that Pitman wrote, “While the Court recognizes the importance both of protecting academic freedom and supporting public employees’ right to free speech, the Court finds that these important ideals do not dictate the appropriate framework for this case.”

“Restricting research and teaching about one of the world’s major communications platforms is not a sensible or constitutionally permissible way of addressing legitimate concerns about TikTok’s data-collection practices,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the the Knight First Institute, said in a written statement.

There has been widespread concern nationwide that the China-based company poses additional security or privacy threats. Earlier this year, Montana outright banned the app from being accessed in the state, but a November ruling, according to PBS News Hour, by a federal judge blocked the state’s effort to apply a blanket ban.

Shortly before Montana’s attempt to ban TikTok, Florida banned the popular social media app from school-owned devices at state universities “due to the continued and increasing landscape of cyber threats.”