A group of professors and researchers at Texas public universities are suing the state government and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) for imposing a ban on TikTok on any device used to conduct official state business.

The lawsuit was filed by the Coalition for Independent Technology Research in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and argues the state's prohibition on downloading TikTok to any device that is used for official state business violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and is infringing on the ability of faculty and researchers to do their jobs.

FTC INVESTIGATING CHATGPT OVER ALLEGATIONS IT HARMED CONSUMERS BY PUBLISHING FALSE INFORMATION

"Texas’s decision to restrict public university faculty from accessing a major communications platform is compromising both research and teaching," the lawsuit says. "It is preventing or seriously impeding faculty from pursuing research that relates to TikTok — 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 — whether to teach about TikTok or to use content from TikTok to teach about other subjects."

TikTok, a popular social media app, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and has been labeled a national security risk by experts and federal intelligence officials due to its massive data collection capabilities and the company's ties to the Chinese Communist Party. A bipartisan effort to ban the app has been ongoing for several years. The federal government and numerous states, including Texas, have banned the app from government devices and networks.

In its lawsuit, the coalition argues that the ban, while well-intentioned, should not survive legal scrutiny when applied to university faculty and researchers.

"While faculty are public employees, the government’s authority to control their research and teaching is limited by the First Amendment — and the ban cannot survive First Amendment scrutiny," the lawsuit says. "Imposing a broad restraint on the research and teaching of public university faculty is not a constitutionally permissible means of protecting Texans’ 'way of life' or countering the threat of disinformation."

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement that prohibiting faculty from using TikTok was a poor effort to address concerns about data privacy.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“Banning public university faculty from studying and teaching with TikTok is not a sensible or constitutional response to concerns about data-collection and disinformation,” Jaffer said. “Texas must pursue its objectives with tools that don’t impose such a heavy burden on First Amendment rights. Privacy legislation would be a good place to start."

Abbott's office did not respond to a request for comment.