Montana just became the first American state to ban TikTok after its legislature voted to give final approval to a bill nixing the social media app’s presence within its borders.
On Friday afternoon, lawmakers in the Montana House of Representatives voted 54-43 to ban TikTok from all personal smartphones and tech devices within the western state. This makes Montana the first US state to take such stark action against the Chinese-owned social media app. And they may not be the last…
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The ban is not in effect quite yet, however. The bill — which is known by politicians in the State Legislature Building (pictured above) as SB419 — must still be signed by Governor Greg Gianforte before it is made into a law.
If Gianforte chooses to sign the bill, the law would go into effect statewide in January of next year. Gianforte, a Republican, has not yet indicated whether he would sign such a bill. When asked about the possibility that he would make the TikTok ban official, his spokesperson Brooke Stroyke told CNN:
“The governor will carefully consider any bill the legislature sends to his desk.”
For what it’s worth, Gianforte has previously banned TikTok from all state-owned official government devices. He did that last December. Then, in January of this year, he publicly urged the Montana University System to follow suit with their own administrative TikTok ban for official educational devices — which it did.
This new law as passed would prohibit TikTok from operating anywhere within Montana state lines. That also means the app would be barred from app stores within the state and unavailable for download by people living within Montana’s borders. Per multiple media reports, penalties for TikTok if it were to operate in Montana would range “up to $10,000 per violation per day.”
Not only is TikTok targeted with these penalties, but the fines would “also apply to any app store found to have violated the law.” Importantly, individual users would not be penalized for accessing TikTok, though. This legislation is firmly aimed at the social media app itself — as well as its parent company ByteDance.
In response, TikTok delivered their own statement on Friday afternoon. Spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter hinted that the tech giant might take legal action to fight back against the bill if Gianforte were to sign it into law:
“The bill’s champions have admitted that they have no feasible plan for operationalizing this attempt to censor American voices and that the bill’s constitutionality will be decided by the courts. We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.”
Wow…
Of course, various lawmakers nationwide have been calling for TikTok bans for months now. Some say the Chinese government could potentially gain access to app user data through its links to ByteDance and exploit that information via intelligence networks or propaganda systems. FBI director Christopher Wray even testified in front of Congress to discuss those concerns. When asked whether Chinese officials were spying in that way, Wray noted “we’re not sure that we would see many of the outward signs of it happening if it was happening.”
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For now, it looks like SB419 will be the focus of a lot of attention and controversy. And its immediate future is not certain — with the real possibility that Gianforte could veto the bill before it becomes a law. Carl Szabo, who is the vice president of a technology industry group called NetChoice, asserted SB419 is unconstitutional because it goes against America’s prohibition of “bills of attainder,” which is legislation aimed at making illegal a specific person or company.
Szabo told CNN:
“This move from the Montana legislature sets a dangerous precedent that the government can try to ban any business it doesn’t like without clear evidence of wrongdoing. The US Constitution clearly forbids lawmakers from passing laws to criminalize a specific individual or business. Gov. Greg Gianforte should veto this clearly unconstitutional law.”
Guess we’ll see what happens with all that as soon as Gianforte takes a look at this bill when it comes across his desk.
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