Montana lawmakers on Friday approved a bill to ban TikTok, the first U.S. state to do so. The Montana House voted 54-43 to send the bill to Governor Greg Gianforte’s desk.
U.S. officials, senators, and representatives have for years expressed concerns that the Chinese Communist Party could force TikTok to spy on its 150 million American users or distribute CCP propaganda.
Meghan Bobrowsky and Stu Woo for Teh Wall Street Journal:
The governor’s office declined to say whether he would sign the bill but noted Mr. Gianforte had previously banned TikTok on government-issued devices and urged the state university system to do the same.
The bill said the ban would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. It would prohibit TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., from operating within the state, and would also bar app stores from offering TikTok within the state. It would fine any entity violating this law $10,000 per violation.
Once the governor receives the bill, he has 10 days to act on it before it automatically becomes law.
The bill’s authors ahead of the vote said they expect legal challenges that could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court should Mr. Gianforte sign the legislation.
App store-providers Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
MacDailyNews Take: Could trigger a domino effect.
See also: U.S. President Trump issues executive orders banning TikTok and WeChat – August 7, 2020
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