AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article was first published on April 15th, 2023, when this bill passed the house and awaited the Governor’s signature to become law.
Today Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill that prohibits both public and private residents in Montana from accessing and downloading the popular social media app TikTok, the first in the United States to enact such a bill. Many state leaders in mostly Republican-controlled state houses have moved to ban the use of TikTok by government employees and on public grounds.
Unless it is blocked by the courts beforehand, the Montana Free Press reports that this legislation will take effect on January 1st, 2024.
The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented.
Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.
Gianforte said in a statement.
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company over TikTok, intends to challenge this bill in court with the help of American Civil Liberties Union, claiming that it violates the 1st Amendment.
With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana legislature have trampled on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montanans who use the app to express themselves, gather information, and run their small business in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment.
ACLU of Montana Policy Director Keegan Medrano said in a statement.
Furthermore a representative for TikTok also criticized the ban:
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.
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.
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter, said
But Gianforte has also announced that other apps will be banned as well. The Associated Press wrote :
Gianforte also announced he was prohibiting the use of all social media applications tied to foreign adversaries on state equipment and for state businesses in Montana effective on June 1. Among the apps he listed are WeChat, whose parent company is headquartered in China; and Telegram Messenger, which was founded in Russia.
The legislation, drafted by the attorney general’s office, easily passed through Montana’s GOP-controlled Legislature.
Gianforte had wanted to expand the TikTok bill to include apps tied to foreign adversaries, but the legislature did not send the bill to him until after the session ended, preventing him from offering any amendments.
For more on the specifics of this TikTok ban, read the original report below:
Montana is primed to become the first state in the U.S. to outright ban the popular social media app TikTok for everyone in the state, not just for the government staff and public places like many other states have been doing in recent times.
We are facing a threat unlike any other from the Chinese Communist Party hiding behind TikTok. We know the Peoples’ Republic of China is one of our top adversaries, yet we allow them to freely gather information about Montanans, Montana’s companies and the intellectual property of its users.
House sponsor Rep. Brandon Ler (R), said
SEE: TikTok Will Now Collect Biometric Data Including Face And Voiceprints
On Friday the Montanan house narrowly passed the bill by 54-43. But Governor Greg Gianforte is reportedly undecided on his position, according to the Montana Standard. He has, however, already prohibited its use by public staff.
‘SB 419 would ban application stores from Apple and Google from offering TikTok within the state and envisions tens of thousands of dollars in fines for companies found violating its terms,’ the paper added.
Furthermore, Montana Free Press added: ‘SB 419 authorizes a $10,000 fine for each violation of its requirements but exempts app usage by law enforcement, national security interests and “essential government uses permitted by the governor on the information technology system of the state.” It doesn’t include provisions that would allow the state to prosecute individual Montanans for circumventing the ban, which would take effect at the beginning of 2024.’
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter responded negatively to the bill:
The bill’s champions have admitted that they have no feasible plan for operationalizing this attempt to censor American voices and that the bill’s constitutionality will be decided by the courts.
We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.
SEE: Teenage Girls Are Developing Tics And Doctors Are Finding TikTok Is The Cause
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement to the New York Times:
We’re under no illusions that this is not going to get challenged. I think this is the next frontier in First Amendment jurisprudence that’s probably going to have to come from the US Supreme Court. And I think that’s probably where this is headed.
Meanwhile a bipartisan Senate is looking to pass what they call the RESTRICT Act, which would be an outright ban of TikTok for everyone in the United States, though many have noted that the bill is far more than just that and would usher in an incredible wave of online censorship than before, if passed.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
‘Yeah, that’s right, let’s ban TikTok so communist China can’t spy on us: only WE the American government can spy on you!’
This whole thing with TikTok is just another divide and concur ruse, masquerading behind even MORE censorship to come. A lot of this TikTok drivel got started because made a big fuss about it in 2020, and now that narrative spread to many other Republicans and now some Dems.
For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:
1 Thessalonians 2:5
But as I said, the juicy hypocrisy here is just ridiculous. I am certainly not defending TikTok, but NONE of these deceivers want to talk about all the other popular apps and technologies owned and started by Chinese inventors; and God forbid we address the huge elephant in the room, that a gargantuan amount of things Americans rely on come from CHINA. Moreover, no one ever talks about the deep censorship, data collection, surveillance, and intrusion by the likes of Meta, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and more; on top of all the other foreign technologies from South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and more.
And now this guy is also banning Telegram and WeChat. While WeChat is definitely a surveillance state app used by the communist regime in China, the ban on Telegram is just ridiculous; but a lot of this is just posturing so he can “stick it to Russia.”
Also, a basic VPN will easily bypass a lot of these restrictions. These bills are just for show in the end, and yet again another loss of rights.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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This is very serious. TikTok exposes the US govt in many ways. It is our needed freedom of speech and information!
No, this is censureship of the first Amendment