Governor Greg Gianforte of the US state of Montana has signed a law that permanently bans the provision of TikTok in the state. The ban will take effect on January 1, although lawsuits from the Chinese social medium are expected to follow.
The law was enacted roughly a month ago approved by lawmakers and now reports The Guardian that the ban on TikTok has been finalized after a signature from the governor. Montana is the first state in the United States to ban the provision of TikTok to citizens. Federal government employees in the US and Flanders, among others, were previously not allowed to use the app on their work phones.
Breaking the law can be done in could result in a fine of $10,000 per day each time an entity offers the app. The fine would therefore not be for users, but for providers such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. TikTok parent company ByteDance also risks such a fine. On the other hand, it is still unclear how the US state plans to enforce such a law.
TikTok is being banned because the platform would pass on information to the Chinese government, something the company itself has always denied. In a statement, TikTok says that the ban in Montana is illegal and that this is a violation of the first amendment of the US Constitution. The social medium is expected to go to court to reverse the ban. The resulting decision could set an important legal precedent for any other US states that want to ban the platform completely.
