Montana has become the first state in the United States to officially ban the use of the popular social network, TikTok. The decision was made public by Governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, on his official Twitter account. He instructed the chief employee on state information technologies to ban any application that provides personal or data foreign opponents from network. Governor Gianforte cited the need to protect the personal data of Montana residents from the Communist Party of China.
The ban requires Apple and Google to remove the TikTok video service from their application stores. Failure to comply with the ban will result in fines for the corporations. However, the ban will only come into effect from January 2024 onwards.
In March 2021, the United States Congress submitted a two-party bill called the Restrict Act. The bill empowered the US Minister to forbid TikTok and other foreign technologies from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela for national security reasons. The bill received support from President Joe Biden and 12 senators and was expected to ban TikTok in the US due to concerns over the transfer of personal data of US citizens to the Chinese government and potential misinformation dissemination.
It is worth noting that the social network is already prohibited in the Russian Federation. Montana’s ban underscores the growing global concern over social media platforms and the potential misuse of user data.