HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley announced it will block six websites on its servers that are affiliated with the Chinese government.
The block is following Texas Gov.. Greg Abbott’s ban prohibiting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media apps affiliated with China.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Abbott said. “To achieve that mission, I ordered Texas state agencies to ban Chinese government-based AI and social media apps from all state-issued devices. State agencies and employees responsible for handling critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party. Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
Abbott announced the ban Friday, ordering the following applications and websites to be prohibited on government-issued devices in the State of Texas:
- Rednote
- DeepSeek
- Webull
- Tiger Brokers
- Moomoo
- Lemon8
“This measure is taken to protect our critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information from potential data-harvesting and espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party,” UTRGV announced.
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