Texas State is banning the use of two social media apps owned by Chinese companies after a proclamation from Gov. Greg Abbott.

Abbott’s proclamation named Lemon8 and RedNote, two apps owned by Chinese companies, following the national ban on TikTok. Abbott previously banned TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, from government devices in December 2022.

“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Abbott stated in a press release. “To achieve that mission, I ordered Texas state agencies to ban Chinese government-based AI and social media apps from all state-issued devices.”

According to a Texas State email to faculty, staff and current students, the ban will take effect on Feb. 14. After that date, students will not be able to access those apps on university-owned devices or while on the university’s internet. This is in line with how Texas State handled the TikTok ban.

Abbott’s proclamation also added four other Chinese-controlled websites and tools to the state’s prohibited technology list. The four other banned technologies include AI tool DeepSeek and the stock trading websites Webull, Moomoo and Tiger Brokers.

Students, staff or faculty with any questions can fill out an ITAC form to have their questions answered.