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It began when Republican states in the US began banning Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on government devices and eventually ballooned into a raft of countries making the same decision — including Australia and the rest of the Five Eyes alliance.
Now a Republican governor has announced the first statewide ban on the app, restricting its use completely.
Governor Greg Gianforte of Montana signed the move into law overnight, in what will very likely be the first of many similar moves.
“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,” Gianforte said in an announcement.
The total ban will come into effect on 1 January 2024.
Reactions to the ban have been swift, and not entirely positive. Keegan Medrano, policy director of the Montana branch of the ACLU, came out swinging, saying the ban “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 in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment”.
Unsurprisingly, TikTok is also displeased with the move.
Brooke Oberwetter, a spokesperson for TikTok, considers the move an unlawful infringement of First Amendment rights.
“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 in a statement.
TikTok has declined to comment on whether or not the company will seek to file a lawsuit halting the ban.
The new legislation will make it illegal for any app store, or TikTok itself, to supply the app. Fines of US$10,000 per day will apply each time someone is able to download the app. The fines will not apply to individuals.
Montana’s governor also announced a ban on the use of all social media apps with ties to foreign adversaries on state-owned hardware. The ban comes into effect on 1 June and includes apps such as Russia-based Telegram and Chinese-owned WeChat.
TikTok chief executive Shou Chew faced up to a congressional hearing in March this year to defend TikTok against the rolling bans.
“The bottom line is this: American data stored on American soil, by an American company, overseen by American personnel,” Chew said at the time. “Today, US TikTok data is stored by default in Oracle’s servers. Only vetted personnel operating in a new company, called TikTok US Data Security, can control access to this data. Additionally, we have plans for this company to report to an independent American board with strong security credentials.”
Whether these plans bear any fruit remains to be seen.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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