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USA | Apr 18, 2023

US state of Montana to ban TikTok

/ Our Today

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TikTok app logo. (Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File)

The Republican controlled US state of Montana has moved to ban popular Chinese app TikTok, making it the first US state to pass legislation banning the social media app on personal devices.

If signed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte, the statewide ban will come into effect in January 2024.

The ban will become law ten days after its passage.

“We don’t want citizens of the great state of Montana being spied upon by the Communist government of China. TikTok is a bad influence on American children, and this is a move to stop TikTok ruining American lives. I expect the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis to shortly put a ban in place in the Sunshine State,” a Montana state legislator said.

TikTok pushed back against the ban in Montana, issuing a statement which read: “We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment Rights are threatened by the egregious government overreach.”

This ban on TikTok is expected to be challenged and may very well go all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Montana bill is seeking to prevent TikTok operating as a de-facto spyware app.

It must be stressed that the bill does not make it illegal for people who already have TikTok on their devices to use the ByteDance controlled app. TikTok has already been banned on government devices in Montana.

(Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File)

The American government is calling on ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok to sell it to preferably an American company or face the prospect of being banned across the entire country.

Using TikTok in Montana will come with a US$10,000 penalty as the stake seeks to protect data privacy.

TechFreedom lawyer Ari Cohn said, “The internet is far greater than one state, is far greater than one country. If we’re going to start regulating things like this, it really needs to be done at the federal level. A patchwork of 50 different laws just isn’t workable.”

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