The law is now ready without the signature of the state governor. Tiktok plans to fight the ban in court.
In the US state of Montana, lawmakers decided on Friday to ban the use of the Chinese-owned Tiktok video app.
Montana is the first US state to make such a decision. To enter into force, the bill still needs the signature of the state governor.
If the law goes into effect in Montana, it will require Google and Apple to remove Tiktok from their app stores under the threat of a daily fine of $10,000.
Tiktok has announced that it will fight the bill through the courts.
– We will continue the fight for Tiktok users and content producers in Montana. Their livelihood and their rights according to the first article of the constitution are threatened, Tiktok’s representative said.
Driven through a nationwide ban
In the United States, a nationwide ban on Tiktok has been pushed. At the end of March, the CEO of Tiktok Shou Zi Chew was heard by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce when he tried to prevent authorities from banning the app from being used in the US.
Banning Tiktok in the United States would be significant, as the service, which is especially popular with young people, has more than 150 million users in the country and is the second most popular source of online entertainment after the streaming service Netflix.
One option has been suggested that Tiktok’s ownership would move away from China, at least for the US operations.
The data security of the Chinese-owned application has raised concerns in other Western countries as well, because it is not clear how much information about users ends up at the company and what is done with it. Many western countries have banned the use of video applications on government and military devices.
Tiktok is a social media service developed by the Chinese technology company Bytedance.
The state of Utah previously banned minors from using social media at night. In the short video below, journalist Sara Salmi explains what the legal reforms are about: