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The governor of Montaña, Greg Gianforte, approved a law that will prohibit the digital stores of Apple and Google from offering the Chinese application for their users to download, a measure that would take effect on the first day of 2024. The announcement has received multiple criticisms for the opposition, claiming that it violates the country’s first constitutional amendment and is expected to be legally challenged.
“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect the private data and sensitive personal information of Montana citizens from exploitation by the Chinese Communist Party,” the Republican governor declared in a statement to the public.
The measure establishes that, in the event that ByteDance, the company that created TikTok, does not comply with the regulations, it would face a fine of $10,000, in the same way, if the Silicon Valley giants, Apple and Google, violate the prohibition and offer the application to its users, they would face a fine of the same amount, for each day that the application appears available to the citizens of Montana.
In March of this year, a committee of congressmen met with TikTok’s chief operating officer, Shou Zi Chew, to express their disagreements with the operation of the application and to question him about whether the Chinese government could access the information of US users. . The Chinese company has rejected these theories on multiple occasions.
Reactions to the ban
In a statement in response to the bill’s passage, US TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter said the rule “infringes the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by illegally banning TikTok,” further adding that they would undertake efforts to secure “the rights of their users inside and outside of Montana.”
“We want to assure Montananese that they can continue to use TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue to work to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana,” Oberwetter said in the statement posted on his Twitter.
Despite state approval, expert voices mention that the law would have to face multiple legal challenges at the federal level to be applied in reality, possibly violating a constitutional amendment.
“This is a clear violation of the Constitution, which prohibits the government from blocking Americans’ access to Constitutionally protected speech online through websites or apps,” said Carl Szabo, vice president of NetChoice, a Trade group that includes TikTok among its members.
1/2 TikTok’s statement: “Governor Gianforte has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of #Mountain by unfairly banning #TikToka platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state.” https://t.co/rLKiZO9J4N
— Brooke Oberwetter (@brookeOB1) May 17, 2023
The TikTok ban, an obsession of US governments
The new law signed by the Montana government is the result of multiple efforts by state administrations in the North American giant to limit the use of the video application, arguing that the Chinese Communist Party could be influencing the content and using consumer data. americans.
In February, more than half of the states, Montana among them, banned their public officials from using TikTok on mobile devices for government use, a decision based on concerns about the misuse of information by the Chinese company.
In 2020, then-US President Donald Trump attempted to ban new TikTok and WeChat downloads across the country through an executive order, however Trump’s legislative attempt was stopped by multiple federal courts.
Geopolitical rivalries between the United States and China, coupled with security concerns in cyberspace generated by new technologies, have caused governments like Montana’s to issue prohibitive laws, which ultimately affects the daily dynamics of American youth. .
With Reuters and AP
