“Montana lawmakers gave final passage Friday to a bill banning the social media app TikTok from operating in the state,” the New York Post reported.
Like nearly half of the Union’s states and the federal government, Montana already bans TikTok on state-owned devices. This bill goes further.
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said, “We 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 statement released on behalf of the China-owned company.
Oberwetter added that the bill’s proponents “have admitted that they have no feasible plan for operationalizing this attempt to censor American voices and that the bill’s constitutionality will be decided by the courts.”
The company is believed to answer to the Chinese Communist Party, the China’s ruling party. The CCP has faced scrutiny for eliminating critical journalists as well as for keeping ethnic minorities in concentration camps and harvesting their organs.
It is unknown if proponents of the law responded to the TikTok spokesperson’s accusations of “egregious government overreach.”
Leaders of the FBI and CIA have expressed concerns about TikTok as have the Biden administration and many Republican lawmakers.
The measure passed 54-43 and now goes to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte for his signature.
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