Well, on Wednesday, Montana became the first state
in the country to ban political or social media app
. I should say Tik Tok. Now, our
senior reporter Michelle Castillo is here to explain what this
all means for the residents and what kind of effect
it actually could have on the rest of the country
. Hey, Michelle break it on down. Hey
, Shannon. So yes, Governor Greg Gianforte signed
Senate bill 4 19 yesterday. It makes it illegal
to use the app in his state. So this
law which goes into effect January 2024 will ban any
downloads of the app in the state. People or
companies who use the app or encourage others to do
so could be fined up to$10,000 per day.
The governor said he wanted to protect residents private information
from being compromised, referencing that the app is run
by Chinese company by dance. He added that the
Chinese government could theoretically harvest data from American users.
The legislation also points out that Tik Tok encourages minors
to quote, participate in dangerous activities and they cited
examples of people throwing objects at moving vehicles and overdosing
on medication. So the sentiment echoes what other government
officials have warned, which includes numerous senators and the
heads of the FBI and CIA and President Biden himself
. They've all said that Tik Tok could be a
major national security threat. Montana is the first state
to ban tiktok but more than 30 others have put
restrictions on the app in place. And it's mostly
for government officials at this time in a statement to
Cheddar, a Tik Tok spokesperson called the move by
the governor quote unlawful. And they added that we
want to assure Montanans that they can continue to use
tiktok to express themselves, earn a living and find
community as we continue working to defend the rights of
our users inside and outside. Montana. Tiktok has
previously said that it's never been asked to hand over
data and wouldn't if it was. But in November
, I'm sorry. In December 2022 the company admitted
it inappropriately accessed data of two journalists using the app
. So there is some cases, around 200,000 people
use the app in Montana that includes 6000 and businesses
. That's according to the company, many businesses rely
on the app as a source of income or a
way to attract customers through marketing. So this could
have a major effect for them. And as I
mentioned, numerous other states are considering putting restrictions on
the app. This bill could serve as a blueprint
for other politicians looking to cramp down on Tik Tok
. Well, I know a lot of people are
worried, especially those influencers that rely on tiktok for
their income. So it'll be interesting to see how
this pans out in other states and there as well
. All right. Thank you so much Michelle for
that update.