The University of Texas at Austin is banning Shein, alongside other Chinese-owned companies, from being used on school devices and campus Wi-Fi. The ban, which will go into effect on Feb. 27, was enacted in order to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest directives regarding Chinese-owned companies. Texas has been banning several Chinese apps, websites and devices over the last few years. It recently widened the list of banned apps earlier this month.
Why is UT Austin banning Shein?
The institution announced it is following recent bans on Chinese companies posted by the Texas government recently, Quartz reported.
“All full- and part-time faculty, staff, contractors, fellows, post-docs, interns, and anyone performing business, including research, for the University may not use TikTok or other prohibited technology on personal devices that are also used for university business,” the university said on its website. “This includes student employees who perform any University business on a personal device.”
UT Austin invited users to stop using personal devices for university business such as accessing university email inboxes and data or systems used by the institution.
“The University of Texas at Austin is committed to managing risks and safeguarding the university’s resources from threats posed by malware and other cyber threats. Malware includes software that intercepts information and delivers it to a third party without authorization,” the university wrote. “This policy is intended to ensure compliance with the new regulations as well as enhance awareness of potential security risks and safeguard sensitive state and university data.”
Texas updated its list of banned Chinese companies on Feb. 4. That list includes Shein, TikTok, RedNote, Alibaba, Alipay, WeChat, WeChat Pay, Huawei Technologies Company and TP-Link.
Since December, Shein has been under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s office, according to a press release. It is being investigated over “potential violations of Texas law related to unethical labor practices and the sale of unsafe consumer products,” as well as the company’s data collection and privacy practices, “which may pose risks to millions of American consumers.”
Shien is one of the leading fast-fashion companies, with the U.S. being its biggest market, per Quartz. In 2025, the company represented 1.7% of the U.S. retail market.
Texas has ramped up its ban of Chinese-owned companies
Gov. Abbott first ordered a ban on the use of TikTok on all government-issued devices in 2022. The government said the decision was made to “protect against the growing threat of the Chinese Communist Party gaining access to critical U.S. information and infrastructure,” according to a January 2025 press release.
In 2023, the governor signed into law Senate Bill 1893, which prohibited the use of TikTok and other banned social media apps on government-issued devices. In 2025, Abbott then banned AI and any social media apps tied to China or the Chinese government.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” he said at the time, per 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. 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.”
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