Montana May Soon Become First US State to Impose Total Ban on TikTok

Legislators in Montana have adopted a measure that would completely ban TikTok from being used in the state, according to a report by AP.

The proposal, which is supported by the state's GOP-controlled legislature, goes further than federal and almost half of the states' restrictions that simply prohibit TikTok on government-owned devices.

Will Montana completely ban TikTok?

The proposal was approved by the Montana House on Thursday with a vote of 60-39; the final House vote is anticipated on Friday before the bill is sent to Republican Governor Greg Gianforte.

In March, the Senate approved the measure by a vote of 30 to 20. The proposed prohibition would not go into effect until January 2024 and would be revoked if Congress passed a ban or if TikTok cuts its ties to China.

ByteDance's TikTok has come under fire because of concerns that it might provide the Chinese government access to user data or disseminate propaganda and false information on the platform that supports China.

But it must be noted that the FBI, CIA, and other lawmakers from both parties have not offered any proof to back up these concerns.

However, the advocates of the Montana legislation cite two Chinese regulations that mandate companies to assist the government with state intelligence operations.

Additionally, they highlight ByteDance's December 2020 admission that it had fired four workers for accessing the IP addresses and other information of two journalists to determine the source of a leaked story about the company.

New Bill Granting Power to the Commerce Department

Legislation that would grant the Commerce Department the power to limit foreign threats on tech platforms is also being considered by Congress. The White House backs the bill, but privacy activists, right-wing commentators, and others are against it because they believe the language is too wide, according to AP.

Austin Knudsen, the attorney general of Montana, urged lawmakers to pass the measure because he did not believe Congress would move quickly to enact such a federal prohibition.

The proposed bill would forbid the downloading of TikTok in Montana and impose a fine of $10,000 per day on any "entity," such as an app store or TikTok, for each occasion in which a user is offered the option to browse or download the app.

However, the users will not be subjected to the proposed fines.

According to a statement TikTok issued in response to the planned ban, the company will "continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach."

TikTok has already been banned from government-owned devices in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other nations.

The proposed Montana ban is likely to face legal challenges but could serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that many national lawmakers are trying to push for a long while now.