Montana’s House of Representatives on Friday approved a blanket ban on TikTok in the state, prompting the state’s Republican governor to sign the first-of-its-kind ban into law.
The legislation, which also bans app store sales of the wildly popular viral video app TikTok, passed 54 to 43 in two votes in the state legislature.this the state senate passed it March.
Governor Greg Gianforte has 10 days to decide whether to sign the bill into law, veto it or do nothing and let it become law without his signature. Mr. Gianforte’s spokesman, Brooke Metrione, said he would “carefully consider any bill that the legislature brings to him.”
TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement that supporters of the bill have acknowledged that they have no viable plan to enforce the ban.
“We will continue to fight for Montana’s TikTok users and creators whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this appalling government overreach,” she said.
Montana’s Republican-controlled legislature has been an unlikely battleground in recent weeks in an increasingly bitter tech battle between the United States and China. Lawmakers in Washington have said for years that they believe TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, could provide information to Beijing or be used to spread propaganda. The Biden administration has told TikTok that it wants its Chinese owners to sell their stake in the app or face a possible nationwide ban.
Concerns about the app have emerged as the U.S. government seeks to thwart Chinese telecom companies and chipmakers while supporting its rivals. In 2020, the government forced a Chinese company to sell the dating app Grindr.
Under Montana’s legislation, TikTok could face fines if it continues to operate in the state, as can Apple and Google if they allow users to download the app. The law would lift the ban, which takes effect in 2024, if TikTok is sold to a company not established in a hostile country.
Supporters of the ban say Beijing could use the app to obtain data on users in Montana. They point to ByteDance’s admission that some of its employees inappropriately obtained journalists’ data while investigating leaks about the company.
Montana would be in uncharted territory if it tried to ban the app. A trade group funded by Apple and Google said the companies cannot stop app downloads in one state. Critics of the legislation say TikTok users can disguise their location to maintain access to the app, and that the ban could be difficult to enforce in border towns.
Lawmakers narrowly rejected a proposed amendment to the bill that would have expanded the ban to all online services that provide data to hostile forces.
If the ban becomes law, it could be challenged in court. The ACLU and other free speech groups say the bill violates the First Amendment rights of Montanans who use the app. But the state attorney general who drafted the bill said he was ready for a court battle.
