Texas judge backs state's TikTok ban on state-owned devices
Fox News
A federal judge in Texas has upheld the state's ban on using TikTok on official devices and networks, rejecting a First Amendment challenge from a Columbia University group.
The Knight Institute brought the complaint on behalf of Coalition for Independent Technology Research, a group of academics and researchers who study technology’s impact on society. Their lawsuit also cited a member of the group - and a professor at University of North Texas - who they said couldn’t assigning students certain in-class work and had suspend some research projects because of the ban.
In his decision on Monday, Judge Robert L. Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, wrote the state’s ban on official devices is not a restraint on speech and noted that public university faculty – as well as state employees – maintain the right to use TikTok on their personal devices.