What Montana's TikTok Ban Means For the Platform Across U.S.

<div class="block">This week, Montana became the first state to ban the social media platform TikTok. While the law doesn&#39;t go into effect until January 2024, the move could have implications spanning the U.S.</div>

Closing Bell

Well, on Wednesday, Montana became the first state in the country to ban the very popular social media app. Tik Tok Chatter news, senior reporter Michelle Castillo joins me with more to explain what it means for residents of Montana Michelle and what kind of effect it might have even on the rest of the country. What can you tell us? Hey, so Governor Greg Gianforte signed Senate bill 4 19 yesterday. So it makes it illegal to use the app in his state. Now, this law which will go into effect January 2024 will ban any downloads of the app inside Montana. People or companies who use the app or encourage others to do so could be fined up to $10,000 per day. Now, the governor said he wanted to protect residents private information from being compromised referencing that the app is being run by Chinese company Bike Dance. He added that the Chinese government could theoretically harvest data from American users. So the legislation also points out that Tik Tok encourages miners to quote, participate in dangerous activities. And it cited examples of people throwing objects at moving vehicles and overdosing on medication. I spoke with Ashley and Britney who live in Montana and currently have over half a million followers on tiktok. Their count is those Drywall chicks. They're not that concerned about the ban. However, take a listen, we honestly don't really have a problem with not being able to be on tiktok. So we do have like a half a million followers on there. But, you know, we also have a lot of followers on Instagram and Facebook. So we're really not impacted by it very much. I mean, I feel like our sponsors will still stick with us no matter what and we just won't have to post on tiktok anymore. In fact, they said they've been having difficulties using Tik Tok and find other social platforms like Instagram better for business despite them having fewer followers there. But other government officials including numerous senators, the heads of the FBI and the CIA and even President Biden himself have warned that Tik Tok could be a major national security threat. Now, Montana is the first state to ban tiktok, but more than 30 others have put restrictions on the apps use. And that's mostly for government officials at this time. In a statement to chatter, a Tik Tok spokesperson called the move by Governor Gianforte quote unlawful and they added, we quote, we want to reassure Montanans that we can continue that they can continue using Tik Tok to express themselves, earn a living and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside Montana tiktok has previously said that it's never been asked to hand over data and if it was, it wouldn't. However, in December 2022 the company admitted it inappropriately accessed data of two journalists using the app. Around 200,000 people use the app in Montana that includes 6000 businesses according to the company and many companies rely on the app as a source of income or a way to attract customers. So it could have a major effect for them. As for the sisters, they're just going to redirect their followers before January. I mean, that helps us get followers on all platforms too just because we have follow us on Instagram on everything we post on there too. So I think before January, we'll just have to kind of throw in some posts on tiktok like, hey, you know tiktok is being banned in Montana. So if you want to see our post, just follow us on Instagram and Facebook as for what this means for other creators, only time will tell how many other states will follow Montana's lead. So it's interesting Michelle because we know it has been a hot button topic. I mean, any info as to why Montana of all states was the first one to make this move. You know, it's a Republican state and they have been concerned over privacy laws. There is a lot of concern especially about the data. So I read through the legislation and the majority of it does really talk about data privacy and the concern that the Chinese government could use it to spy on us citizens. However, I did find that that section specifically on trends that might influence the youth. I pointed out the one example of when someone was throwing objects at moving vehicles that did cause the death of someone and other, other trends that might have caused some injury that's also concerning to them as well. But definitely something that that state has been keeping an eye on.