Montana Governor Signs TikTok Ban—But Legal Challenges Are Expected

Topline

Montana became the first state in the U.S. to approve a TikTok ban when the state’s Republican governor signed a bill into law Wednesday afternoon preventing anyone in the state from downloading the app and implementing fines for app stores that offer it in a ban slated to start on January 1—though the move is expected to bring legal challenges.

FILE – In this March 7, 2016 file photo, Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, left, … [+] introduces Lesley Robinson, center, as his running mate in East Helena, Mont., as Attorney Gen. Tim Fox, right, looks on. Gianforte, the Republican running for Montana governor, is readying to launch a major ad blitz that could begin airing across the state as soon as Tuesday, April 12, 2016. Notices of some of the ad buys began appearing on the Federal Communications Commission’s website on Monday. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan, File)

Key Facts

Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the first-of-its-kind bill after it passed without any significant challenges through Montana’s Republican-controlled legislature.

Gianforte tweeted after he signed the bill that he did so “to protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.”

Montana previously banned the app from being downloaded or used on government-owned devices in December 2022, with Gianforte saying TikTok posed a “significant risk” to state data.

It’s unclear how the ban will be enforced—or what will happen to users who download the app before the ban goes into effect—but the law will not punish or fine individual users of TikTok.

Key Background

The main legal concerns around the bill stem from free speech issues and the notion that a ban of the app would conflict with the First Amendment. Since talks of a potential ban in the U.S. began, lawyers have said it’s likely the courts would favor TikTok, but supporters of the Montana bill feel the national safety concerns take precedence, the Wall Street Journal reported. A majority of U.S. states—and Congress—banned TikTok from government devices after reports indicated the app was able to track user keystrokes and that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was tracking American citizens. Some federal officials and Congress members have expressed concern that the Chinese government could direct ByteDance to spy on Americans or spread propaganda through the app, though TikTok has said that hasn’t happened and they wouldn’t comply if it did.

Tangent

When signing the bill Wednesday, Gianforte said he is directing state employees to bar all other social-media applications that have ties to foreign adversaries from being used on state equipment and for state business in Montana, similar to his ban of TikTok on government devices, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Key Facts

Key Background

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