{"id":1972452,"date":"2023-07-13T19:18:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T23:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-professors-sue-abbott-over-tiktok-ban-at-state-universities\/"},"modified":"2023-07-13T19:20:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T23:20:08","slug":"texas-professors-sue-abbott-over-tiktok-ban-at-state-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-professors-sue-abbott-over-tiktok-ban-at-state-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas professors file lawsuit against Governor Abbott over TikTok ban at state universities."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftexas-professors-sue-abbott-over-tiktok-ban-at-state-universities%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1972452&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Academics Sue Texas Government Over TikTok Ban<\/h2>\n<p>A group of professors and researchers from Texas public universities have filed a lawsuit against the state government and Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) for imposing a ban on TikTok usage on devices used for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-gov-accused-of-misusing-taxpayer-funds-to-fight-sexual-assault-claim\/\" title=\"Dem Gov Accused of Misusing Taxpayer Funds to Fight Sexual Assault Claim\">official state business<\/a>. The Coalition for Independent Technology Research filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, arguing that the ban violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and hinders the ability of faculty and researchers to perform their duties.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Texas\u2019s decision to restrict public university faculty from accessing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-new-documentary-inventor-of-mrna-tech-reiterates-safety-concerns-that-got-him-banned\/\" title=\"In New Documentary, Inventor Of mRNA Tech Reiterates Safety Concerns That Got Him Banned\">major communications platform<\/a> is compromising both research and teaching,&#8221; the lawsuit states. &#8220;It is preventing or seriously impeding faculty from pursuing research that relates to TikTok \u2014 including research that would illuminate or counter the data-collection and disinformation-related practices that the ban is ostensibly meant to address. It has also made it almost impossible for faculty to use TikTok in their classrooms \u2014 whether to teach about TikTok or to use content from TikTok to teach about other subjects.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>TikTok, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-professors-sue-abbott-over-tiktok-ban-at-state-universities\/\" title=\"Texas professors file lawsuit against Governor Abbott over TikTok ban at state universities.\">popular social media app owned<\/a> by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been deemed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-comer-biden-may-be-compromised-by-hunters-foreign-deals\/\" title=\"Rep. Comer: Biden may be compromised by Hunter\u2019s foreign deals\">national security risk due<\/a> to its extensive data collection capabilities and its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Efforts to ban the app have been ongoing for years, with the federal government and several states, including Texas, prohibiting its use on government devices and networks.<\/p>\n<p>The coalition argues in its lawsuit that while the ban may have good intentions, it should not be applied to university faculty and researchers. They contend that such a broad restriction on research and teaching violates the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;While faculty are public employees, the government\u2019s authority to control their research and teaching is limited by the First Amendment \u2014 and the ban cannot survive First Amendment scrutiny,&#8221; the lawsuit asserts. &#8220;Imposing a broad restraint on the research and teaching of public university faculty is not a constitutionally permissible means of protecting Texans\u2019 &#8216;way of life&#8217; or countering the threat of disinformation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute representing the plaintiffs, criticized the ban as an ineffective response to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/several-members-of-congress-want-to-block-amazons-acquisition-of-irobot\/\" title=\"Several Members of Congress Want to Block Amazon\u2019s Acquisition of iRobot\">data privacy concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Banning public university faculty from studying and teaching with TikTok is not a sensible or constitutional response to concerns about data-collection and disinformation,&#8221; Jaffer stated. &#8220;Texas must pursue its objectives with tools that don\u2019t impose such a heavy burden on First Amendment rights. Privacy legislation would be a good place to start.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No comment has been received from Governor Abbott&#8217;s office regarding the lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lawsuit has been filed by Texas professors and researchers against the state government and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX). They challenge the ban on TikTok for official state business devices. The Coalition for Independent Technology Research filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1972453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1972452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1972453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}