More public universities in the US block TikTok

Bans met with a backlash from students sceptical about the US-China rivalry

- Charissa Yong

WASHINGTON - Temoc, the curiously muscular mascot of the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), is cavorting on his TikTok page dancing, posing and drawing attention to the college's trends and events.

But the playful online days of the blue-skinned, orange-maned anthropomorphic comet may be numbered after UT Dallas on Tuesday became one of the latest public universities since early December to block TikTok from their networks over cyber-security concerns.

Oklahoma's Northeastern State University has blocked TikTok since Dec 9.

Marketing major Eric Aaberg, 23, who worked on UT Dallas' TikTok page and helped produce the Temoc videos, lamented the decision on Wednesday in a TikTok clip that has been viewed more than 38,000 times.

"I spent years making that cute," said Mr Aaberg as a screenshot of Temoc floated overhead, "and people loved it, and now it just rots away." "This is my job. This is what I do for a living," he added. "It's not banned publicly; as an individual, you can still use it. But it's just crazy because it's a step closer to that, which is scary for a lot of people."

This follows recent TikTok bans by state governments, which have disallowed the use of the video hosting app on government-issued devices over concerns that user data could be harvested and shared with the Chinese government.

Opposition to TikTok has been mounting in Congress, with both Republican and Democrat lawmakers pushing fresh legislation on Dec 13 that would ban the app entirely, citing it as a national security threat.