There’s been a lot of chatter for the past year or so about TikTok being banned in the United States, and now finally, it has. Kind of.
One state, Montana, has officially taken the bold step as the first state in the U.S. to ban TikTok. There’s still plenty of time for overweight and awkward dads of pre-teens and teens to record and post unlimited cringy dance videos before the ban goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.” That is part of the statement from Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on the day he signed the bill into law.
He then must have figured, hmmm, this is Montana; how often will I have a chance to have the national spotlight like this? So he jumped on Twitter and made sure the world was really certain of how proud he was of himself. “TikTok is just one app tied to foreign adversaries. Today I directed the state’s Chief Information Officer to ban any application that provides personal information or data to foreign adversaries from the state network.”
Well done, Governor! China was less impressed. Here’s part of the official word from the parent company. “Governor Gianforte has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok, a platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state. We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”
Oh, the irony. A Chinese company lecturing an American Governor about free speech.
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