Governor Greg Gianforte made Montana the first state to restrict downloads of TikTok, the immensely popular social media app used by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans. He signed legislation that was passed last month. It makes it illegal for app stores to give users the option to download TikTok. And it makes it illegal for the company to operate within the state.

“The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented,” Gianforte said. “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.”

To protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in Montana.

— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) May 17, 2023

This law will face legal challenges. TikTok will fight it in court. Users are loathe to give up their TikTok. Gianforte said he is protecting the privacy of Montanans.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter called the bill “unlawful” in a statement Wednesday, saying the app is 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,” Oberwetter said.

When the bill passed last month, Oberwetter said its “champions have admitted that they have no feasible plan for operationalizing this attempt to censor American voices.”

Americans are addicted to TikTok in a big way. There are more than 150 million users in the United States, according to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and the app continues to grow in popularity. However, though this is the first state to ban downloads and use of the app, the app has been banned in states by governors as far as state employees using it on state-issued devices. And, Joe Biden banned TikTok last year for the federal government’s 4 million employees as they use government-issued devices.

Montana is a state that has already banned TikTok on state-issued devices. SB 419 in Montana extends to personal devices as it states “Tiktok may not operate within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana.” It prevents Apple and Google and any other company from offering TikTok for download. When/if the law goes into effect, the Montana Department of Justice will be able to fine app stores or ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, $10,000 per violation. There will also be a $10,000 fine per day that the violation continues. The fines are not applicable to individual TikTok users, it just affects distribution of the app.

I’m not sure exactly how this will be enforced by the state. The bill was first passed in April by the Montana House and then went to the Montana Senate. There was bipartisan support. That is also true on the federal level – there is bipartisan support for banning TikTok on government-issued devices.

SB 419 passed the Montana House 54-43 on April 14 and cleared the Montana Senate 30-20 on March 2. The bill made it through both chambers with bipartisan support and opposition.

Supporters said the ban is needed due to TikTok being owned by a Chinese company and collecting a large amount of data on users. The bill’s primary sponsor Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, said at a February 27 Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs meeting that there is significant concern that data is being used against American interests and companies.

“After years of investigative reporting we now know this to be true, TicTok endangers the safety of Montanans and Americans at large,” said Vance. “We know that beyond a doubt that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is operating as a surveillance arm of the Chinese Communist Party and gathers information about Americans against their will.”

As I mentioned, this will be tied up in the court system for a while. The governor’s intention was good but we’ll have to see how it plays out legally.