The governor of Montana has signed a law that bans TikTok in the state of Montana.
This was done to “protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” according to Governor Greg Gianforte.
TikTok’s owners and their fellow travelers rushed to decry this egregious assault on personal liberty, yadda yadda.
The law levies fines of $10,000 per day for any app store offering TikTok in Montana, as well as on TikTok itself. It takes effect January 1st, 2024.
IANAL but I think the odds that this survives court challenges are very low, though this is a little different than your typical free speech case. If a state wanted to ban a site based on content – say, PornHub – they’d have a very tough constitutional fight. But here, Montana isn’t saying the content on TT is the problem, but rather how China harvests user data.
Who wants to use it, will do so.. with a simple VPN you can use any app or software you want. But hey, they try. Any social media platforma harvests data, but generally speaking.. seems the whole world is saying no to TikTok. Maybe some bigger picture is rolling out ?!
Tik Tok also is going to be banned in other states geometry dash bloodbath.