Montana Becomes The First US State To Fully Ban TikTok

On Wednesday, the Republican governor of Montana signed a law outlawing TikTok entirely, making Montana the first state in the US to do so. The law is more comprehensive than any other state’s attempts to restrict the social media app.

It is anticipated that the law, which is set to go into effect on January 1, 2024, will be legally challenged. It will also act as a trial run for the TikTok-free America that many national legislators have envisioned.

“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” Governor Greg Gianforte said in a statement.

According to Brooke Oberwetter, a spokesperson for TikTok, the regulation is illegal and violates people’s First Amendment rights.

“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana,” Oberwetter said in a statement.

The FBI, several senators, and representatives from other agencies are worried that the ByteDance-owned video-sharing app may be used by the Chinese government to acquire data on American residents or to disseminate propaganda in favor of Beijing that could sway public opinion.

According to TikTok, none of this has ever occurred.

Mr. Gianforte claimed that TikTok posed a “significant risk” to confidential state information when Montana banned the app on smartphones used by the government in late December. Both the federal government and more than half of the US states have comparable restrictions.

The legislation was easily approved by Montana’s GOP-controlled legislature before being signed by Mr. Gianforte.

The new law in Montana forbids the downloading of TikTok in the state and fines any “entity”—such as an app store or TikTok—10,000 US dollars (£8,000) per day for any instance in which someone “is offered the ability” to visit the social media site or download the app. Users would not be subject to the fines.

By using a virtual private network, a service that shields internet users by encrypting their data transmission and prevents others from seeing their web browsing and other activities, Montana residents may simply get around the prohibition, according to the law’s opponents, who claim that this is an example of government overreach.

Geofencing technology, according to Montana state officials, is employed with online sports betting apps. These apps are turned off in jurisdictions where online gambling is prohibited.

TikTok has vowed to fight back against the ban, joining small business owners who claim they use the app for advertising to expand their brands and attract more clients. TikTok has stated that it has a plan to defend US users.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana opposed the law on the grounds that it restricted free expression in an unconstitutional manner.

Due to the app’s huge popularity and user-friendliness, US digital giants like Snapchat and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, view it as a rival.