Montana Governor Signs Total Ban of TikTok in the State

[Godless Socialist CEO]

Montana Governor Signs Total Ban of TikTok in the State (Published 2023)

The legislation is the most extreme prohibition of the app in the nation and will almost certainly face legal challenges.

www.nytimes.com

The legislation is the most extreme prohibition of the app in the nation and will almost certainly face legal challenges.

Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana, shown in January, signed the country’s first statewide ban of TikTok on Wednesday.Credit...Thom Bridge/Independent Record, via Associated Press


By Sapna Maheshwari
May 17, 2023
Updated 6:54 p.m. ET



The governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, signed a bill on Wednesday to ban TikTok from operating inside the state, the most extreme prohibition of the app in the nation and one that will almost certainly be challenged in court. The ban will take effect on Jan. 1.

“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. Gianforte, a Republican, said in a news release.




The Montana Legislature introduced the bill in February, leading to months of debate. The proposal, which would affect everyday users of the popular short-form video app, significantly escalated a national rush to ban TikTok on government devices based on concerns about the company’s ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance. The battle over the bill offered a glimpse of what the United States might encounter nationally if lawmakers or the White House attempt a nationwide ban of TikTok, which has been floated in recent months.

TikTok, which says it has 7,000 employees in the United States, has been fighting back in the state for months. It has run ads featuring Montana small businesses that use TikTok and given prewritten emails to users so they could contact Mr. Gianforte about opposing the bill.

The legislation prohibits mobile app stores, like those run by Apple and Google, from offering TikTok within the state. A trade group funded by Apple and Google has said in recent months that it is impossible for the companies to prevent access to TikTok in a single state.

“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,” Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said in a statement on Wednesday. Montanans, she added, can keep using the app “as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”

Under the legislation, TikTok could face fines if it continues operating in the state, as could Apple and Google if they allow people to download the app.
Apple and Google didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

The battle in Montana erupted during a period of intense national scrutiny on TikTok, which boasts more than 150 million U.S. users. Lawmakers and intelligence officials have said TikTok, because of its ownership, could put sensitive user data into the hands of the Chinese government, pointing to laws that allow Beijing to secretly demand data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence gathering.

They have also expressed concern that the app, which is especially popular with teenagers and people in their 20s, could be used to spread propaganda. Congress grilled Shou Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, for roughly five hours at a March hearing that focused largely on the app’s Chinese ownership.

TikTok says it has never been asked to provide, nor has it provided, any U.S. user data to the Chinese government. The company has proposed a detailed plan for operating in the United States that it says should allay national security concerns and fears of misinformation, but the plan has not yet been approved by the Biden administration, leaving TikTok and its future in limbo.

Free speech groups were quick to respond to the Montana ban. The American Civil Liberties Union said on Wednesday that the legislation “flouts the First Amendment.”

“The government cannot impose a total ban on a communications platform like TikTok unless it is necessary to prevent extremely serious, immediate harm to national security,” the group said in a statement. “But there’s no public evidence of harm that would meet the high bar set by the U.S. and Montana Constitutions, and a total ban would not be the only option for addressing such harm if it did exist.”

The Montana bill says the ban will be void if TikTok is acquired by, or sold to, a company that is not incorporated in a country “designated as a foreign adversary.”

You know this is a bunch of bullshyt, because if they actually cared about protecting the general public's privacy and the country's national security they would've banned meta and twitter first

 

[Buddy]

I lived in Da Butt ( Butte that is) for 15 years

 

[bnew]

You know this is a bunch of bullshyt, because if they actually cared about protecting the general public's privacy and the country's national security they would've banned meta and twitter first

the irony being america exported this business model to the world.

 

[bnew]

Montana’s TikTok ban blocked by federal judge

Judge rules state was trying to target China rather than protect Montana residents.

arstechnica.com

Montana’s TikTok ban blocked by federal judge​

Judge rules state was trying to target China rather than protect Montana residents.​

MICHAEL ACTON, FINANCIAL TIMES - 12/1/2023, 9:35 AM

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A federal judge has stopped a US state’s landmark ban on TikTok from going into effect, in an important test case for the widespread political backlash that has grown in the country against the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

Montana’s Senate Bill 419, which was signed by the state’s Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, in May, would have gone into effect in January and imposed a ban on downloads of the app.

On Thursday, Judge Donald Molloy granted TikTok’s request for a preliminary injunction after the ByteDance-owned app challenged the legislation in court, denouncing it as an unconstitutional infringement of its rights. Some users of the app also joined the legal challenge.

While the law would only have applied to Montana—a western state with a population of just 1.1 million—the case has reflected a broader global debate around security concerns with the app, which has drawn attention from governments and regulators concerned that TikTok’s ties to China may allow it to harvest user data for espionage purposes.

A number of states have restricted downloads of the app on devices used by government employees, but Montana was the first to ban downloads for all residents.

The Montana bill also cites TikTok’s failure to remove dangerous content for minors as a justification for a ban.

Groups including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Chamber of Progress filed briefs in support of TikTok in the case, while a Virginia-led group of 18 states threw its support behind Montana.

To win a preliminary injunction, the plaintiff must show that its case has an overall likelihood of success. The judge concluded that TikTok had done so.

“Despite the state’s attempt to defend SB 419 as a consumer protection bill, the current record leaves little doubt that Montana’s legislature and attorney-general were more interested in targeting China’s ostensible role in TikTok than with protecting Montana consumers,” Molloy wrote.

TikTok had argued that the law restricts the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by denying them an important channel of communication.

The judge concluded that the bill was not “narrowly tailored” enough, effectively amounting to overreach by the legislature, which must justify such measures on the grounds of an important governmental interest.

“First, the law’s foreign policy purpose is not an important Montana state interest.” And another state law already shields the protection of children online, he noted.

“SB 419 completely bans TikTok in Montana. It does not limit the application in a targeted way with the purpose of attacking the perceived Chinese problem.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Montana attorney general said the injunction would only apply while the court considered the full merits of the case. “We look forward to presenting the complete legal argument to defend the law that protects Montanans from the Chinese Communist party obtaining and using their data,” said Emilee Cantrell.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We are pleased the judge rejected this unconstitutional law and hundreds of thousands of Montanans can continue to express themselves, earn a living, and find community on TikTok.”

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