If the law comes into force, the social media app should no longer be offered in app stores and no longer operate as a local company. In the US, Tiktok is coming under increasing political pressure.
The Montana House of Representatives has passed legislation banning the Chinese-developed social media app Tiktok. If Montana’s governor signs the law into law, which is likely, the ban would go into effect in January. The new regulation would prohibit app stores from offering the app. Tiktok should also no longer operate as a company in the northwestern state. Users who already have the app on their devices would not be affected. Montana is the first state to pass such sweeping legislation.
In the US, Tiktok, which belongs to the Chinese internet group Bytedance, is coming under increasing political pressure. President Joe Biden’s administration has already banned the app from government employees’ phones. The background is concerns that Chinese authorities and secret services could collect information about Americans via Tiktok and influence them politically.
At the end of March, Tiktok boss Shou Zi Chew had to answer questions in the US Congress. He met with distrust and rejection from both Republican and Democratic MPs.
Tiktok has more than a billion users and is the most successful non-US online platform in western countries. The company rejects all suspicions and emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60 percent owned by western investors and the company is based in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders held 20 percent of the control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing.
After the vote in Parliament in Montana, the US broadcaster quoted CNN a Tiktok spokeswoman said her company will continue to fight for the rights of users and creators in the state.