On Wednesday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation to ban CCP-controlled TikTok from operating in the state to protect residents from intelligence gathering by the Chinese Communist Party, making it the first U.S. state to ban the popular short video app.
Montana will make it unlawful for Google and Apple’s app stores to offer TikTok within the state, but will not impose any penalties on individuals using the app. The ban is to take effect Jan. 1, 2024, and is almost certain to face legal challenges.
TikTok, which has over 150 million American users, has faced growing calls from U.S. lawmakers and state officials to ban the app nationwide over concerns about potential Chinese government influence over the platform.
According to the Pew Research Center, 67% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 use TikTok, and 16% of all teens say they use the app almost constantly.
Gianforte, a Republican, said the bill will further “our shared priority to protect Montanans from Chinese Communist Party surveillance.”
Montana, which has a population of just over 1 million people, said TikTok could face fines for each violation and additional fines of $10,000 per day if it violates the ban.
The short video app can be downloaded in app stores on Apple Inc and Google devices. Apple and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, could also face fines of $10,000 per violation, per day if they violate the ban.
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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how do they enforce that in the App Store?
A computer you PERSONALLY control.
The iOS ain’t it, it comes with a mandatory IT department.
They are taking your freedom away law by law.
?
oh yeah, the same corrupt bunch that wants to dictate who you can marry, where you can work, what medical care you can access, and how many hours you should stand in line to vote in their convoluted gerrymandered districts. we know that group of assholes.
It’s a token first step, but this really takes the Feds to be really effective.
I hate TikTok as much as the next guy, but a ban is just stupid.
So to protect us from the Chinese they need to snoop on our phones….got it.
49 other states should follow.
How is the Chinese government supposedly monitoring our online behavior any worse than the real-life monitoring of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and all the other services that rely on ad tracking our every digital move to push ads (and propaganda) to us based on our individual histories?
That would be great. Biden should do all he can to encourage a wholesale ban in the USA…
There you go again focusing all your thoughts on the unitary executive. It’s up to congress to write legislation and they’re too busy trying to delay paying the credit card bill for stuff that they already charged. Not the brightest group.
There’s an easier way to have consistent national regulation. But of course you would have to elect competent representatives and leaders instead of pep rally blowhards that promise to make you rich and powerful again without any effort on your part or his.
You’re not so thinly veiled backhand swipe at Trump is indeed, IRRELEVANT. Yes, need competent leaders like President Trump who never promised to make the average person rich. That would be a bald faced partisan LIE. What he promised was prosperity and then delivered a roaring economy in record time the greatest economic turnaround in HISTORY! Fast forward to the Biden buffoon who halted energy production and delivered record inflation, gas and food prices in less than two years. Thanks for playing, but you need to pay more attention to REALITY…
Actually, Goeb, that was a deft forehand strike against Dimwit Donny. Mr. Papers scored.
I agree wholeheartedly that Americans need to up their standards in selecting their government. Why don’t you?
Mr. Papers and yourself, sorry to say are the “dimwits”…
Forget surveillance. Just imagine if TikTok released an AI powered filter/feature that made it super easy for anyone to make a video that looked and sound like Biden or Trump. It could so easily happen and completely distort our election cycle.
That’s what happens when you elect Trumpists. Authoritarian limits on freedom of expression.