Governor's Office Ban of TikTok
Dec. 9, 2022 - 1 p.m.
Colleagues,
The Governor’s Office has directed all state agencies to immediately cease the downloading or use of the video hosting service TikTok on any university-issued devices.
A key section of the letter to state agency heads states, “effective immediately, every state agency in Texas shall ban its officers and employees from downloading or using TikTok on any of its government-issued devices. This TikTok ban extends to all state-issued cell phones, laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and other devices capable of internet connectivity, and it must be strictly enforced by your agency’s IT department.”
Therefore, effective immediately at SFA, all use of TikTok should cease on any of the devices described in the statement above. I have directed Information Technology Services to develop and implement plans and policies relative to enforcing this directive.
There will likely be additional enforcement steps we will be directed to take regarding the use of TikTok on personal devices following the release of a model plan currently being developed by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources. We should have a copy of that plan by Jan. 15, 2023, and will use that model to develop our own institutional policy, which will be implemented after it has been approved by the Cyber Security Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Please see the complete letter from the Governor’s Office.
If you have any questions, please direct them to Brandon Stringfield, chief information security officer, at brandon.stringfield@sfasu.edu. I would ask your patience as we determine how to best implement this directive effectively.
Dr. Steve Westbrook, Interim President