Montana’s governor tweeted, “In order to protect the personal and private data of Montana citizens from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in the state of Montana.”
Montana has become the first US state to ban Chinese app TikTok after its governor, Greg Ganforte, signed legislation banning mobile app stores from providing the app within the state by next year.
The TikTok application, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has come under increasing scrutiny from the US government due to fears that it poses a threat to national security at home.
Montana’s governor tweeted, “In order to protect the personal and private data of Montana citizens from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in the state of Montana.”
The federal government and more than half of US states have banned the app from government agencies, and the Biden administration has threatened a nationwide ban unless the parent company sells its shares to an American company.
The company previously denied sharing user data with the Chinese government. TikTok said in a statement that the Montana ban “violates the First Amendment rights of Montana residents by illegally banning TikTok,” and that the company intends to “defend the rights of our users inside and outside Montana.”
TikTok is one of the most used social networks in the United States, with more than 100 million active American users.
Questions remain about how such bans were enforced and what effect they might have on the content creators who use them.
Montana’s new law, which will take effect Jan. 1, bans downloading of the app in the state and fines any “entity” (such as an app store or online platform) $10,000 per day for each time someone “offers” access. to or download the application. But penalties will not be applied to users.
Montana’s ban on the app is expected to face legal challenges, and it will serve as a testing ground for an America whose lawmakers seek to ban the app in all states.
The state’s governor had banned all social media applications that “collect and provide personal information or data to foreign adversaries” on government agencies. Among the Chinese application “WeChat” and “Telegram Messenger”.
“violation of the constitution”
Opponents of the measure see it as government overreach and say Montanaans can easily circumvent the ban by using a VPN, a service that protects Internet users by encrypting their traffic and preventing others from monitoring their web browsing.
Internet freedom advocates and others have also criticized the US crackdown as amounting to censorship.
Keegan Medrano, director of policy at the Montana Civil Liberties Union, said the legislature “has trampled on the freedom of expression of hundreds of thousands of Montanaans who use the app to express themselves, gather information and run their small businesses in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment.”
NetChoice described the bill as unconstitutional.
“This is a clear violation of the Constitution, which prohibits the government from denying Americans freedom of expression via the Internet and websites or apps,” Carl Szabo, the group’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
