The embattled social media service TikTok will be banned across the state of Montana in the near future. About a month after that state"s legislature voted to send a bill to ban TikTok to its Governor Greg Gianforte, he signed that bill into law today.
Reuters reports that, under the language of the new law, Apple and Google"s mobile app stores will not be able to offer TikTok for download inside the state of Montana. The bill is officially supposed to go into effect on January 1, 2024. This is the first time that a law has been passed to ban TikTik from being used by ordinary citizens, rather than government employees on government devices.
Governor Gianforte repeated what many politicians have said about TikTik to justify the ban, stating that the China-based company could be collecting personal data to be used by the Chinese government. In its own statement, TikTok said the law "infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok." Its parent company ByteDance is likely to file a lawsuit against the state of Montana.
TikTok is just one app tied to foreign adversaries. Today I directed the state’s Chief Information Officer to ban any application that provides personal information or data to foreign adversaries from the state network. pic.twitter.com/92Im6D9Jgx
— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) May 17, 2023
In addition to today"s bill signing, Governor Gianforte issued an executive action, instructing Montana"s Chief Information Officer to ban any mobile app that might be sending data "to foreign adversaries" on state government-owned devices. The executive action specifically mentioned apps like China-based Temu and WeChat, and Telegram Messenger, as examples of apps it feels could be sending information to those governments.