Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on Wednesday (May 17) signed legislation to ban TikTok in the state, effective January 1, 2024. Montanans and experts weighed in on the new ban. 

Montana

U.S Congress is debating a total ban of the popular social media app TikTok amid suspected links to China.

TikTok Ban

Montana residents weigh in on TikTok ban

Reaction to Montana's statewide ban of TikTok was swift and broad on Thursday, as users voiced dismay and experts weighed in on its legality. On Wednesday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation to ban TikTok in the state, effective January of next year. The next day, five TikTok users in Montana filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking to block the ban. In the suit, the users claimed the law violates their First Amendment rights. TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, has faced growing calls from U.S. lawmakers to ban the app nationwide over concerns about potential Chinese government influence over the platform. TikTok has over 150 million American users, including around 200,000 in Montana. The new ban prohibits Google or Apple app stores from offering TikTok within Montana state lines. I think our governor is being a little goofy. Montana-based TikToker Christian Poole earns a small income from the app, making what he describes as satirical videos about Montana. There's still four years of me growing this fan base and all of a sudden, one day, our governor doesn't like it, it goes away. I don't know, I'd be pretty P.O.'d a little bit. Meanwhile, some in the city of Bozeman cautiously agreed with the idea of a ban. It seems like a good thing, yeah. If it's a sign that it's stealing people's information, yeah, it's probably a good thing. Jenna Leventoff, a senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, worries about the impact of the ban on small businesses. They're concerned about losing their access to this app, especially small business owners. I've heard from people in Montana that use TikTok to access customers across the country. It's a really small state. The customer base is small. They need TikTok to, you know, build a business. Throughout our history, the government has always used national security concerns to justify violations of our free speech rights. It's the oldest trick in the book to try to justify taking away the speech of Americans, and that's why it's something that we need to fight. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Montana and names the state's attorney general, who is charged with enforcing the law. Their office said that it had expected and is fully prepared to fight lawsuits over the new ban.

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TikTok Ban