On Friday, the Montana House of Representatives approved a blanket ban on TikTok in the state, requiring the state’s Republican governor to sign the first-of-its-kind ban.
The bill, which would also ban app stores from carrying the wildly popular viral video app TikTok, was approved in the final two ballots in the state legislature, 54-43.of State Senate passed it March.
Governor Greg Gianforte must decide whether to sign the bill into law, veto it, or wait 10 days after receiving the bill to pass it into law without his signature. A spokesperson for Gianforte didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Overwetter said in a statement that supporters of the bill admitted they had no viable plans to enforce the ban.
“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.
Montana’s Republican-dominated Congress has become an unlikely battleground in recent weeks in the growing tech feud between the United States and China. Lawmakers in Washington have said for years that they believe TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, could be used to provide information to the Chinese government and spread propaganda. The Biden administration has told TikTok it wants to sell its stake in the app to Chinese owners or face a nationwide ban.
Concerns about the app arose as the US government tried to sabotage Chinese telecom companies and chip makers while helping competitors. In 2020, the government forced a Chinese company to sell dating app Grindr.
Under Montana law, TikTok could be fined if it continues to operate in the state, similar to what Apple and Google would do if they allowed users to download their apps. The law lifts the ban and is expected to come into effect in 2024 if TikTok is sold to a company not embedded in an enemy country.
Proponents of the ban say Beijing can use the app to obtain the data of users in Montana. They point out that ByteDance admitted that some employees improperly accessed journalists’ data while investigating leaks about the company.
Any attempt to ban the app would send Montana into uncharted territory. A trade group funded by Apple and Google said both companies said he could not stop app downloads in one state. Opponents of the law say TikTok users may disguise their location to maintain access to the app, and the ban may be difficult to enforce in border towns.
Lawmakers narrowly rejected an amendment to the bill that would extend the ban to all online services that provide data to adversaries.
If the ban becomes law, it will likely be challenged in court. The American Civil Liberties Union and other free speech groups say the bill violates the First Amendment rights of Montana residents who use the app. But the state attorney general who drafted the bill said it was ready for a legal battle.
