On Wednesday, Montana became the first U.S. state to prohibit TikTok from protecting residents from Chinese intelligence collection.

Montana will ban TikTok from Google and Apple’s app stores but not penalize users. The ban takes effect Jan. 1, 2024, and will likely be challenged in court.
ByteDance’s TikTok did not react to Reuters’ legal action inquiry.

According to TikTok, the new rule “infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok,” which will “continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”

Over 150 million Americans use TikTok, which U.S. politicians and state authorities want banned because of fears about Chinese government interference.
Teens adore the app. The Pew Research Center found that 67% of 13-to-17-year-olds use TikTok, and 16% use it almost daily. The “vast majority” of TikTok users are over 18.

In March, a congressional committee questioned TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about whether the Chinese government might access user data or influence American content. However, Congress has rejected proposals to outlaw TikTok nationwide or give the Biden administration greater authority.

Republican Gianforte called the bill “our shared priority to protect Montanans from Chinese Communist Party surveillance.”

TikTok has frequently denied sharing data with the Chinese authorities and stated it would not do so if asked.
If it breaks the restriction, Montana, with a little over 1 million residents, may pay TikTok $10,000 daily.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Google device app stores offer the short video app. If they break the restriction, Apple and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), might be fined $10,000 per day. Apple and Google did not immediately comment.

According to the ACLU, if the courts don’t act, the “unconstitutional” law will take effect on Jan. 1.

“In the name of anti-Chinese sentiment, 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,” said ACLU of Montana policy director Keegan Medrano.

Numerous courts halted Trump’s 2020 Commerce Department effort to restrict TikTok and WeChat downloads.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the ACLU are TikTok’s free speech advocates.

NetChoice general attorney Carl Szabo also opposed the measure. He stated, “The government may not block our ability to access constitutionally protected speech – whether it is in a newspaper, on a website or via an app.” In addition, Montana “ignores the U.S. Constitution, due process and free speech.”

Gianforte, who had tried to persuade the state legislature to ban other social media apps that provide data to foreign adversaries, also banned using all such apps on state-issued devices.

Project Texas, a TikTok project, creates an independent organization to keep American user data on Oracle (ORCL.N) servers in the U.S.