Montana became the first US state to ban TikTok entirely on Wednesday, after Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure that is broader than any other state’s attempts to restrict the social media app.
The move is likely to face legal challenges and serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free country that many national lawmakers have envisioned.
Some lawmakers, FBI officials and other agencies are concerned that the video-sharing app, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, could be used to allow the Chinese government to access information on U.S. citizens or promote disinformation on behalf of Beijing that can influence the population. TikTok ensures that this has never happened.
When Montana banned the app on government-owned devices last December, Gov. Gianforte, a Republican, said TikTok posed a “significant risk” to the state’s sensitive information. More than half of the states in the country, as well as the federal government, have implemented a similar restriction.
Gianforte signed the bill after it easily passed the Republican-led Montana legislature.
Montana’s new law bans TikTok downloading in the state and will impose $10,000 a day fines on any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — each time someone is offered access to the media platform. social or download the app. Users would not be penalized.
Opponents argue that this is government overreach and say that state residents could easily evade the restriction by using a virtual private network, a service that protects internet users by encrypting their traffic data, preventing others from watching. your activities online. Montana state officials say geofencing technology is used with sports betting apps, which are disabled in states where online gambling is illegal.
TikTok, which has said it plans to protect US users, has vowed to fight the move, along with small business owners who say they use the app for advertising purposes to help grow their businesses and reach more users. The ACLU of Montana opposed the measure, saying it was an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
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