Montana Becomes First US State to Ban Tiktok on Personal Phones
Montana has become the first state in the United States to ban TikTok on personal mobile phones, as the governor aims to safeguard residents from Chinese surveillance.
This prohibition, which Chinese-owned TikTok considers an infringement on freedom of speech, is the first of its kind in the Western world. The social media platform has faced intense scrutiny due to concerns that its Chinese owners could exploit the app to steal user data.
China’s national security laws grant authorities the power to secretly compel any company to act on their behalf, including engaging in espionage.
Greg Gianforte, the Republican governor of Montana and a former software engineer, signed the ban into law, stating that it is the most decisive action taken by any state to protect Montanans’ private data from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.
The ban will come into effect on January 1, 2024, although legal challenges are expected, potentially delaying its implementation.
A TikTok spokesperson criticized the ban, claiming that it infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana and unlawfully restricts a platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of users in the state.
Governments in various countries, including the UK, US, and many European nations, have already banned TikTok from official devices due to security concerns.
TikTok has amassed around 150 million users worldwide since its launch in 2017, with approximately 2 billion downloads. Its rapid rise has disrupted the predominantly US-owned social media landscape, posing challenges for companies like Meta, the owner of Instagram, and Snapchat.
A former executive of ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, alleged in a lawsuit that the company had installed a committee of Communist Party members to promote core Communist values.
According to the former executive, ByteDance operated as a “useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party” and fostered a culture of lawlessness.
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, has claimed that the Chinese government has never requested user data from the app and asserted that the company would refuse to comply if asked.
However, in a US Congress hearing, Chew acknowledged that certain ByteDance staff in China have access to US users’ data.
American authorities have threatened to ban TikTok entirely unless its US operations are sold to an American company. China has expressed firm opposition to any forced sale of the platform.
