Red State Moves To Fully Ban TikTok Over National Security Concerns

Due to concerns about the app’s’s relations to China, lawmakers in Montana have moved to outright banning TikTok from the condition.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled say House on Friday after passing the Senate, which was also led by Republicans. App stores may be forbidden by the act from” offering the TikTok software to Montana customers.”

It now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has not indicated yet whether he intends to sign the bill. His office said that he would “carefully consider any bill the Legislature sends to his desk.” If signed by the governor, the bill would go into effect on January 1, 2024. 

The text of the bill states that TikTok” gathers significant information from its users, accessing data against their will to share with the People’s’s Republic of China” and” fails to remove, and may even promote, dangerous content that directs minors to engage in dangerous activities.”

Democratic state senator Shelley Vance, who called TikTok” a serious threat to our national protection ,” served as the bill’s’s sponsor. Foreign industry ByteDance, who owns TikTok, has been charged with giving China access to information about Americans.

The ban, according to a spokeswoman for TikTok, may violate the First Amendment and been challenging to maintain.

According to spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter,” We may continue to fight for TikTok owners and authors in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this severe public intrusion.”

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If businesses like Apple and Google permit the application to be downloaded from their app stores, they could be subject to a fine of$ 10, 000 per day.

The moratorium, according to the ACLU and related organizations, would” tread on Montanans’ constitutional right to freedom of conversation.”

Last month, it was reported that TikTok was under investigation for allegedly surveilling U.S. citizens. The FBI, Department of Justice Criminal Division, Fraud Section, and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia opened the criminal investigation over TikTok’s alleged spying on American journalists.

ByteDance has been subpoenaed by the prosecution for” attempts by its employees to access U.S. journalists’ location information or some private user data using the TikTok game.”

TikTok has been the subject of a national ban, and the Biden administration has indicated that it might be open to supporting such an action.