Montana lawmakers pass statewide ban on TikTok, first in nation
Christopher Hutton
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Montana lawmakers voted to pass the first state ban on TikTok, sending the bill to Gov. Greg Gianforte to be signed into law.
Montana’s House of Representatives voted 54-43 on Friday in favor of SB 419, more than a month after the Montana state Senate voted in favor of the bill. SB 419’s passage will make it the most extreme measure lawmakers in the United States have imposed on the China-operated social media app. Gianforte, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill.
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The bill would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, prohibiting TikTok from operating within Montana’s borders. It will also fine companies providing the app $10,000 per violation for allowing users access to the app.
TikTok will “continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach,” a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
Critics say the bill violates freedom of speech. A coalition of left-leaning free speech groups has spoken out against Montana’s ban. “Banning TikTok in Montana would raise serious First Amendment concerns and is not the appropriate way to protect the privacy of user’s data or respond to content on the app that lawmakers disapprove of,” Caitlin Vogus, deputy director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said in a statement.
The bill’s authors expect to see the legislation challenged in court in the coming days, but they are eager to see it play out.
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The free speech concerns are an “interesting legal question,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told the Washington Examiner. “And candidly, that’s part of the reason that we brought this legislation. I think this needs to go to the courts. I think this is a really, really novel, interesting area of undeveloped jurisprudence that we need the courts to step into.”
Congress is considering multiple bills that could limit TikTok within the United States. Full-on bans have been proposed by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the RESTRICT Act, which would provide additional powers to the Commerce Department to review transactions with tech companies operating out of foreign nations of concern, such as Russia or China. The White House has also threatened to ban TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, does not divest its interests in the app.