Montana TikTok Ban Signed Into Law

thewrap.com:

As of today, TikTok is officially banned in Montana. State governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation preventing the Chinese-owned app from operating within the state, which in turn means mobile app stores such as Google Play and iTunes (in theory) won’t be allowed to offer TikTok to Montana residents.Gianforte claimed he’d signed the legislation “to protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.”To protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in Montana.It becomes active on January 1, 2024, and Montana is threatening fines against TikTok and parent company ByteDance should the app attempt to violate or subvert the ban.

TikTok is already banned on Montana government devices.With that being said, enforcing the ban will be challenging. Assuming the major players, Google and Apple, comply and restrict Montana residents’ access to TikTok on the Google Play and iTunes stores, there wouldn’t be much stopping those on the borders of Montana from simply hopping state lines to download it.

And tracking usage within the state is tricky business as well. Factor in VPN usage and all the usual trickery many people already use to get around easily dodged software restrictions and the state is in for a heck of a time trying to truly put the kibosh on TikTok usage.While the Montana legislature passed the ban in April, governor Gianforte signing it into law makes it real.

What other states follow suit remains to be seen. To note: Entire countries, such as India, have also banned the app based on similar China-related privacy concerns..