Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has signed into law a bill banning social media app TikTok “on the grounds of preventing disclosure of state residents’ private information.”
In Montana, which was the first local government to ban TikTok in the United States, Governor Gianforte said, “It is well documented that the Chinese Communist Party uses TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information.” made its assessment.
In case of violation of the new state law, which will take effect on January 1, 2024, platforms such as the Google Play Store and App Store that offer the TikTok application will have to pay a fine of up to 10 thousand dollars per day.
Gianforte, who banned the use of Tiktok on state-owned devices in December 2022, stated that the new law would be expanded to cover “all social media applications that transfer users’ personal information or data to a xenophobe or a person or organization resident in a country designated as xenophobic.”
US President Joe Biden, signed a law at the end of December, banned the use of TikTok on corporate devices by approximately 4 million government officials, with limited exceptions for the federal government’s law enforcement, national security and security research purposes. (AA)