TikTok is banned in the US state of Montana

The short video portal TikTok has been highly controversial in the US for some time. Behind this is the fear of possible covert espionage by the Chinese government. Now the first US state is taking action. Montana wants to ban the use of Chinese YouTube. In doing so, the state is not only arguing with the accusation of espionage.

Law to ban TikTok passed

After Huawei, will TikTok now follow? The U.S. fear of espionage by large Chinese companies is steadily growing. After the USA has maintained tough sanctions against the tech group for years, it could now hit the video portal. The stone is now rolling in the first US state. So it will soon no longer be possible to use TikTok in Montana. The government of the state, which is located in the northwest of the USA, has now passed a corresponding law for the ban and has already passed it.

The only thing missing now is the signature of the responsible governor. If this completes the law, the use of TikTok will be banned from January 1, 2024. But what exactly does the ban look like? The law states that TikTok will no longer be allowed to do business in Montana. This also includes the download offer in the Google Play and Apple App Store. In the end, only those people who have already installed TikTok on their mobile devices will be left out. They should probably be able to continue using the app without any problems.

Ban is increasingly widening

A ban on TikTok is not new in the US per se. Kansas, for example, has banned government employees from installing the social media app on their service device. Montana has now gone a significant step further with its blanket ban. Behind it are familiar concerns. The US government accuses TikTok of using the app to spy on the US population. Furthermore, US authorities fear that China could actively influence the opinion of the population with the help of TikTok. The US certainly has the upcoming presidential election in November 2024 in mind.

The espionage accusations in particular go very far. It is not only the personal data of citizens that is supposedly being collected. On top of that, there are fears of far-reaching industrial espionage. The USA has in mind that TikTok belongs to Bytedance. This is a huge Chinese corporation in which the Chinese government has far-reaching influence. According to fears, China’s leadership could order Bytedance and especially TikTok to hand over data. This is said to include current location data, among other things.

TikTok as a danger for the youth?

In its ban, the Montana government argues not only with fears of possible espionage. On top of that, the app collects data on a large scale from its users. This is particularly worrying in view of the social media app’s young user base. But the responsible politicians also see life and limb in danger. Young people encourage each other to commit increasingly dangerous acts, especially through so-called challenges, which are then uploaded to TikTok. The Blackout Challenge and the Skullbreaker Challenge, among others, have become sadly famous. While the former involves trying to pass out yourself, the latter involves breaking skulls.

Montana also wants to prevent such content from being made public unhindered and encouraging other young people to imitate it. TikTok, meanwhile, shows itself to be like the innocent from the countryside. In view of the 1 billion users that the short video platform now has, this is not surprising. The company emphasizes that it will continue to do everything in its power to ensure that creatives can let off steam on its own platform. When the ban will bear fruit is questionable anyway. After all, the app is currently already on many devices of Montana’s residents. Furthermore, one has to ask whether it is so purposeful to enforce the ban in just one state. We remain curious as to whether Montana will become a blueprint for the entire USA.