Lawmakers in the US state of Montana approved a total ban on the Chinese app TikTok on Friday. If signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte, the state of 1.1 million will become the first in the U.S. to completely ban the popular short-video app. But the AP agency expects that the case will have a legal outcome.
Lawmakers voted 54 to 43 in favor of the ban, which is set to come into effect in 2024. Already in Montana, as in almost half of all 50 US states, there was a restriction that no one could use the app on devices for fear of Chinese espionage owned by the government.
Governor Gianforte did not say Friday if he would sign the legislation. He only said that he would “carefully consider” any approved proposals that come to his desk.
TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter called the law “an attempt to censor the voices of Americans” and promised that the company would go to court.
As the AP notes, it is not yet clear how Montana would like to enforce the law.
All countries of the so-called Five Eyes alliance, which brings together the intelligence agencies of the USA, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, have already decided to ban the use of the TikTok application on government devices. A similar step was announced by Belgium, France and the European Commission. In the Czech Republic, for example, the House of Representatives banned the use of TikTok on all its devices and recommended deleting the application from private devices as well.
