Montana will become the first US state to completely ban TikTok. Greg Gianforte, Republican governor of this territory in the western United States, signed a law prohibiting the download of the application as of January 1, 2024. “To protect the personal data of Montana residents,” he justified, saying in Twitter that the “Chinese Communist Party” could have access to them.
In April, elected officials in Montana ruled that the Chinese group ByteDance’s platform allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate users. Following this vote, several independent experts noted that the law would certainly be challenged in court and was unlikely to be enforced.
Because the text prohibits in particular app stores, that is essentially Google (Android) and Apple (iOS), to distribute TikTok Montana Users.
This law “will exclude Montana from a community of 150 million people in the United States,” lamented Vanessa Pappas, TikTok’s director of operations, after the vote in the Senate of this US state in early March.
“Too soon” for a total ban in Europe
The social network has been in the crosshairs of US and Western authorities for several months. Many governments and parliaments have decided to ban elected officials and their officials from downloading the app on their work phones.
There are many concerns, even in France. Since November, the social network has made it clear that the platform’s employees can access the data of French users, particularly in China.
However, a full ban in Europe is not yet on the agenda. “It is too early to talk about a total ban,” Margrethe Vestager, vice president of the European Commission, explained in April.
Source: BFM TV
