Here’s Why It’s Probably Unenforceable

Topline

The Montana House voted Friday to approve a bill banning TikTok in the state, the first of its kind in the U.S.—though it’s unclear how the state would be able to ever enforce such a ban.

Montana’s GOP-led legislature voted to ban TikTok in the state.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Montana’s Republican-led House voted 54-43 to approve the bill and send it to Gov. Greg Gianforte (R), who is expected to sign the bill after claiming last year that TikTok posed a “significant threat” to state security and data privacy.

The bill prohibits mobile app stores from allowing Montana residents to download TikTok effectively January 1, 2024—though it does not specify how the state would enforce or monitor aspects of the ban.

A $10,000 fine will be issued per day to any app store that still allows TikTok to be downloaded and to any “discrete violation” of the bill, which the bill says is any time a user accesses TikTok or is “offered the ability” to do so.

Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D-Missoula) suggested Montana residents could disguise their location with virtual private networks to download TikTok, and the bill does not specify how residents with internet connections based outside of the state could be affected.

Attorney Shane Scanlon, who voiced opposition to the bill when it was introduced during a Senate committee meeting earlier this year, argued internet providers are not able to control what people do online, and that TikTok would need to prevent users in the state from using the app.

Crucial Quote

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen wrote Friday the ban “is a critical step to ensuring we are protecting Montanans’ privacy.”

Chief Critic

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement the state does not have a “feasible plan” to enforce a ban, adding the company “will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.” In a separate statement last month, TikTok said the bill “isn’t about making users safe, it’s about unilaterally restricting the freedom of Montanans based on nothing more than fears and falsehoods.”

Key Background

A proposal to ban TikTok in Montana was introduced by Republican state Sen. Shelley Vance, who said the app “endangers the safety of Montanans and Americans at large.” Other proponents of the ban argued a ban was necessary because “we know beyond a doubt” that ByteDance is a “surveillance arm” of the Chinese government. The bill was approved by the GOP-led state Senate in March before moving to the House. Some Democratic representatives argued the bill should encompass all social media companies that gather user data, though Republicans voted against amendments that broadened the bill and argued it should directly target TikTok.

Tangent

Bipartisan efforts for a nationwide TikTok ban have accelerated in recent months, after an initial proposal to ban the app by former President Donald Trump in 2020 was revoked by the Biden Administration the following year. A majority of U.S. states banned TikTok from government devices after reports—in Forbes and elsewhere—indicated the app could track user keystrokes and that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, was tracking American citizens. A similar ban was issued by Congress in December. Several schools and universities have also issued bans that block access to TikTok via campus Wi-Fi. Federal regulators have threatened to ban the app in the U.S. if TikTok’s China-based owners did not sell their stake in the company. The Chinese government and TikTok subsequently opposed this.