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Banning TikTok in Montana [1]

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Date: 2023-04-14  

Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The Montana legislature has moved the state closer to banning the social media app TikTok on personal (as opposed to government-owned) devices, as Senate Bill 419 passed a second reading by the House and will now move to a final vote. If it passes that vote, the bill will go to Governor Gianforte (of journalist body-slamming fame) for signing into law.



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While TikTok has come under considerable scrutiny recently, and I do have a healthy mistrust of how data that they gather may be used (as I do with all social media companies), I’m struggling to see how this ban is supposed to work.



The proposed law would not have any penalty for end users, but goes after app sellers who sell TikTok to Montana residents. Does this mean that Google Play, Amazon, etc. are supposed to track down which mobile devices are running the app in Montana and somehow kill it? I don’t use TikTok, but my phone number has a Montana area code and I do not currently live in Montana. Is TikTok supposed to geolocate the device to verify whether the user is or is not in fact within Montana state lines? If a Montana resident travels outside of Montana, can they download TikTok as long as they delete it before they return home? If a Montana resident is sold the TikTok app, would telecom providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) become accessories to the crime because their infrastructure enabled the download?



Aside from these practical enforcement considerations, there are bigger questions: If the state can ban TikTok, could they not also ban any other social media platform (or really any communications platform)? How does this square with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? (We know that money is speech, but is speech still speech?)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/14/2163925/-Banning-TikTok-in-Montana

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