According to several media reports, the U.S. government of Montana announced early this morning that the state will completely block the popular short video social platform TikTok, developed by the Chinese technology company "ByteHop", and anyone who does not comply with the ban will be heavily fined!
This also makes Montana the first state in the country to block TikTok.
According to CNN, the ban on TikTok stems from a bill code-named "SB0419" passed by the Montana Legislature last month. Governor Greg Gianforte signed the bill in the early hours of today. The bill will take effect next January.
In a 5:30 a.m. post, Gianforte also said he was doing so to protect Montana residents from "personal and private information being stolen by the Chinese Communist Party.
The text of the bill, which explicitly refers to the People's Republic of China as an adversary of the United States and Montana in the first sentence, is aimed at companies that operate TikTok and the platforms on which the TikTok app can be downloaded. The main points of the bill are to prohibit any company or individual from operating a TikTok-related business in Montana, and to prohibit any mobile app store from offering downloads of the TikTok app in the state.
Violators will be punished not only by $10,000 per violation, but also by $10,000 per day for the number of days of violation - which translates to about 70,000 yuan.
Although some U.S. media emphasized that the bill only targets mobile app stores and TikTok operating companies, not individual users, the bill has caused a lot of controversy in Montana and across the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a civil rights advocacy group, and NetChoice, a technology industry lobbying group, both argue that Montana's bill violates the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU argues that Montana's law tramples on the freedom of speech of Montana residents who are expressing their opinions, collecting information online and running small businesses through TikTok in the name of "anti-Chinese sentiment.
TikTok has also said it will fight back against Montana's bill, which violates the U.S. Constitution. In a statement, the company said Montana's ban is illegal and violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In addition, on the U.S. social media platform "Twitter," many American netizens are also expressing their dissatisfaction with the ban. Among them, under the post of Montana Governor Gianforti's announcement of the TikTok ban, while some people supported his move, more likes were left to oppose it.
For example, the comment below, which received a large number of likes, expressed full contempt for the practice of blocking TikTok with just one very simple English word: "Stupid".
Another American netizen questioned, "Shouldn't it be our choice (to use TikTok or not)?" .
In addition, the official account of the Libertarian Party of America, which calls itself the "third largest political party" in the U.S., also left a sarcastic comment under Gianfor's post, saying that while your data is shared with the NSA every day without your consent, they want you to think that TikTok is somehow a real threat to your privacy.
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