Lawmakers in Washington are pushing for a complete ban on TikTok on US soil. Montana could be ahead of them.
The state legislature is further ahead than any other body in the United States in approving a ban on the popular Chinese-owned video app, which has been investigated for handing over sensitive data about Americans to Beijing. In February, a Montana bill was introduced to block the app and the state Senate passed it last month. The State House, where the bill has a good chance of passing after two more votes, will consider it on Thursday.
Gradually, the proposal ran into obstacles. A major internet provider said it couldn’t block TikTok in Montana, prompting lawmakers to rewrite the law. A trade group funded by Apple and Google, which controls the app stores that are not allowed to carry the app, also stated that it was impossible for the companies to prevent access to TikTok in a single state.
And there was intensive lobbying. China’s critics have appeared at hearings in support of the bill. To hit back, TikTok has been pushing its users to oppose the legislation by calling and emailing Montana Republican Governor Greg Gianforte. A spokeswoman for Mr Gianforte said he would “carefully consider any bill the legislature sends to his desk” and noted that he had already banned TikTok on state devices.
The fight in Montana is a harbinger of what the United States could face nationally if lawmakers or the White House try to enact a nationwide ban on TikTok. Even if legislation is passed that disallows the app, enforcing a ban would be technologically difficult and would involve businesses across the digital economy.
TikTok could spark a backlash among its 150 million US users. And any ban is likely to face legal challenges, with courts shooting down an attempt by President Donald J. Trump to block TikTok in 2020.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, whose office drafted the bill, acknowledged that issuing a state ban on TikTok would be difficult.
“We are under no illusions that this will not be challenged“ he said in an interview. “I think this is the next frontier in First Amendment case law that will probably have to come from the US Supreme Court. And I think that’s probably where this is going.”
The proposed ban would take effect in 2024.
The Montana moves are part of an intensifying technology cold war between the United States and China, with TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, caught in the middle of it.
Last month, members of Congress questioned Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO, for about five hours about whether the app could provide data to the Chinese government or could be used to spread propaganda. Over the past five years, US officials have also cut off Chinese telecom companies from major suppliers, subsidized US manufacturers to compete with Asian chipmakers and forced a Chinese company to sell the dating app Grindr.
Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said in a statement that there were “thousands of TikTok creators and users in Montana” who “deserve to be at the table in every conversation that impacts them and their livelihood.” TikTok has denied providing user data to the Chinese government.
Mr Knudsen, a Republican, said his team had received dozens of complaints from parents about TikTok content referring to drugs, suicide or pornography. As the state’s legislative session approached this year, his office began looking at the idea of banning the app entirely.
The political environment is in favor of a ban. Montanans are already protecting their personal privacy, state politicians said. Then, in early February, a Chinese spy balloon flew over the state, drawing national attention and raising concerns about Beijing’s espionage.
“Frankly, the Chinese did us a favor by floating that spy balloon over Montana,” Knudsen said. After his office wrote the bill, Senator Shelley Vance, a Republican, introduced it on Feb. 20.
The first draft of the bill, which included fines for internet service providers and app stores if they helped distribute the app, as well as TikTok if it continued to operate in the state, drew little attention when the Senate’s Business, Labor and Economic Committee considered it on February 27.
At one point during that hearing, an AT&T lobbyist stood up and announced that the company opposed the bill. He said it was “not workable” for internet providers to implement a TikTok ban. He said AT&T was discussing an amendment with the sponsors of the bill that would allow the company to withdraw its opposition to the measure.
Lawmakers had removed any mention of Internet service providers like AT&T when the Senate passed the legislation a week later.
By March, TikTok had hired two state lobbyists and was running ads featuring Montana small businesses using TikTok. The app also started to mobilize its users.
“We need your help to prevent the Montana state legislature from stripping you of your right to use TikTok,” the company said in an email posted to a user’s feed. The company gave users a pre-written email they could send to Mr Gianforte to oppose the bill. It sent out a similar warning to users via a notification on its mobile app, according to another post on TikTok.
The State House Judiciary Committee considered the bill, which still required Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their stores, at a March 28 hearing.
App stores regularly remove products. A ban on TikTok could also prevent the stores from distributing updates to the app, slowly hampering the service for users who had already downloaded it. But at the hearing, a representative from TechNet, a trade group of which Apple and Google are members, said it would be “impossible” to restrict TikTok by state.
Apple and Google declined to comment.
State Representative Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, said in an interview that it was possible that TikTok users could disguise their location to maintain access to the app even after a ban, which could also be difficult to enforce in border cities where internet connections exceed mobile phones. may include towers in another state.
But during the hearing, skepticism about TikTok was high. Keith Krach, a former corporate executive behind some of the Trump administration’s efforts to marginalize Chinese companies, testified that he would not let his 11-year-old twins go near the app. He said it was “disguised as candy, but it’s really cocaine.”
“Would you agree that TikTok is the music played by the Pied Piper to steal the heart and mind of this generation?” Rep. Neil Duram, a Republican, asked as Mrs. Zephyr, who was sitting next to him, burst out laughing.
“I’m a little confused about what you’re referring to,” replied Keegan Medrano, the policy director for the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who opposes the bill. A post from their exchange quickly gained 70,000 likes on TikTok. Mr Duram followed up by asking Mr Medrano if he agreed that “this generation” chose the Chinese Communist Party “as their new god” via TikTok.
Mr Medrano said in an interview that the bill could affect speech, potentially making it more difficult for people to discuss topics such as “alternative views on vaccines” or “revolutionary moments in other countries”.
Mr Knudsen said the bill was about “a hostile superpower collecting personal information from Montanans” and that he was prepared for a legal battle.
“I think these are all questions that the courts should probably step in here,” he said. “We didn’t just knowingly slam this legislation without thinking about it.”
