Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has signed a bill banning TikTok within the state — making Montana the first state to ban the app in the United States.
The bill, SB 419, prohibits TikTok from operating “within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana” and demands mobile app stores make the app unavailable for Montana residents.
“To protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in Montana,” Governor Gianforte tweeted today.
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter responded with a statement on Twitter. “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,” Oberwetter wrote.
“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”
For users of TikTok, the law — which goes in to effect January 2024 — specifies that no penalties apply. But app store operators like Apple and Google, as well as TikTok itself, could face fines of $10,000 per violation per day. The law defines an individual violation as “each time that a user accesses TikTok, is offered the ability to access TikTok, or is offered the ability to download TikTok.”
The ban is expected to be challenged in court.
