TO:                         All Faculty

FROM:                   Douglas A. Gage, Ph.D.

                               Vice President for Research and Innovation

                               Melissa Woo, Ph.D.

                               Executive Vice President for Administration & Chief Information Officer

SUBJECT:              Impact at MSU of federal government prohibitions on TikTok and ByteDance applications

DATE:                    July 24, 2023 

In recent weeks you may have seen news about the federal and state government’s concerns related to TikTok. The risks have been described as relating to national, state, institutional, and personal security.* You may also be aware that the federal government is prohibiting TikTok and ByteDance applications on devices and systems used with federal systems or in federal work, including on personally owned devices.* Many states have also prohibited TikTok use related to state activities and some universities have followed suit. 

Initially, MSU plans to deal with implementing the new federal contract term prohibitions on a project-by-project basis. It is worth noting that as of the date of this letter, the TikTok prohibition is not applicable to grants or cooperative agreements. If the Office of Sponsored Programs identifies the requirement during award review, OSP will communicate with the principal investigator(s) for the project related to implementation of the restriction.  

For the longer term, MSU has created a workgroup that will discuss additional implementation at MSU including discussions of the federal requirements, security, and options to minimize impacts.

If you have questions related to the use of TikTok as it overlaps with university technology, please contact Donald DuRousseau, MSU IT at ResearchIT@msu.edu. If you have questions, related to the overlap with your sponsored project proposal or an upcoming award, please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs using the appropriate contact in OSP Contacts by College. For questions related to existing awards, please contact the CGA Awards Group.

*To review the Federal clause applying to contracts, please see:  FAR 52.204-27 Prohibition on a ByteDance Covered Application.