According to cnn.com yesterday Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed bill banning TikTok in the state. According to his tweet, Gianforte has banned TikTok in Montana and “to protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.
“To protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party,” which officially makes Montana the first state to ban the social media application.
The controversial law marks the latest by a state government to restrict TikTok over security concerns. Also some federal lawmakers have called for a national ban of TikTok but the ban is expected to be challenged in court.
In the same article from CNN, TikTok mentioned how they would push to defend the rights of users in Montana.
“Governor Gianforte has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok, a platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state. We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”
TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance and several U.S. officials have expressed fears that the Chinese government could potentially access U.S. data via TikTok for spying purposes. So far, there no evidence that the Chinese government has ever accessed personal information of US-based TikTok users.
Yesterday, Gianforte signed a separate executive order which prohibits the use of any social media application “tied to foreign adversaries” on government devices, including ByteDance-owned CapCut,Lemon8 and Telegram Messenger, which was created while the founder lived in Russia but is based in Dubai.
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