On Wednesday, Montana became the first state in the United States to ban TikTok, amid concerns lawmakers have raised over its parent company’s relationship with the Chinese government.
The move — which comes as the federal government and other states have vocalized national security worries about the app — goes much further than existing policies to restrict access to the social media platform. The ban has also faced questions regarding enforcement and is widely expected to field legal challenges on the grounds that it violates people’s First Amendment rights.
The law, which is slated to go into effect on January 1, 2024, focuses on penalizing TikTok as well as app stores that allow users to download the product. If TikTok continues to operate in Montana, it will be fined $10,000 for a user’s initial attempt to access the app, and $10,000 a day for every day it continues to allow that user access. The same goes for Google and Apple: If they allow users to download TikTok in Montana via their app stores, they will have to pay similar penalties. Individual users are not penalized for accessing the app under this law.
The Montana law is the latest indication of US lawmakers’ growing hostility toward the app, which is owned by the China-based company, ByteDance. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has said he signed the law to “protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.” The new policy follows federal and state bans on the use of the app on government phones due to national security concerns and fears that the Chinese government is using the app to surveil users or distribute misinformation. Some lawmakers have also pointed to a 2017 Chinese law that requires the country’s companies to respond to government demands for data related to national security as a reason to limit Americans’ access to the app.
TikTok has pushed back against these critiques, claiming that the Chinese government has not asked the…
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