On May 17, local time, Montana's Republican Governor Greg Gianforte officially signed a bill prohibiting entities from providing TikTok downloads statewide, making Montana the first state in the United States to completely ban TikTok. TikTok slammed the bill as a violation of users' right to free speech under the First Amendment, and U.S. industry scholars predicted that the bill would "almost certainly" be overturned as unconstitutional.
Reuters: Montana became the first state in the United States to ban TikTok
According to Reuters and CBS, the bill makes it illegal for Google and Apple's app stores to offer TikTok apps in Montana, and the bill will take effect in January 2024. The governor's office said in a press release that "penalties will be enforced by the Montana Department of Justice," and that anyone who violates the law will pay $10,000 per violation, with an additional fine of $10,000 per day for the duration of the violation.
Gianford tweeted: "In order to protect the personal and private data of Montana people from Chinese influence, I banned TikTok in Montana. ”
In mid-month, the Montana House of Representatives passed the "ban on TikTok bill" in second reading, slandering China for "intent to collect information on the state's people and businesses, as well as the intellectual property of users"; The bill also falsely claims that Chinese officials can instruct TikTok to "steal user data and information", so the bill prohibits the download of TikTok; If any "entity" (app store or TikTok) provides users with the opportunity to use or download TikTok, they will face fines, but the fines are not imposed on users. At the time, some media said that "Montana is close to becoming the first state to ban TikTok completely."
Montana has a population of more than 1 million, and TikTok has more than 150 million users across the United States.
On the day the bill was signed, TikTok issued a statement in response that it "illegally banned TikTok and violated the rights of Montana citizens under the First Amendment." TikTok is a platform that allows hundreds of thousands of people in Montana to exercise their right to free speech, and "we want to reassure Montanaites that they can continue to use TikTok to express themselves and earn a living, and find community, as we continue to work to defend the rights of users in and outside Montana," the statement said.
"Montanaites are undoubtedly exercising their First Amendment rights when they post and consume content on TikTok." James Jaffer, executive director of Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute, said in a statement that "because Montana cannot prove that this ban is necessary or that it was enacted for any legitimate interest, this law will almost certainly be overturned as unconstitutional." ”
TikTok bloggers gather outside the Capitol to protest a possible ban/visual China on March 22 in Washington, D.C., USA
In fact, as early as the drafting stage of the blocking order, the media predicted that the ban on TikTok may face many legal challenges because it violates the right to free speech granted to users by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
On March 24 this year, the New York Times published a title titled "There is a problem with blocking TikTok, called the First Amendment to the Constitution." If the U.S. government tries to ban TikTok, an important communications platform, the First Amendment will certainly provide for this, and the government must meet the strictest First Amendment scrutiny because the enforcement of this ban will be a pre-restriction on the speech of potential TikTok users. At the very least, the government must show that the ban is essentially related to important government interests. However, it seems questionable whether the U.S. government will be able to confirm that this blanket ban is tailored to these interests.
In addition to the First Amendment, the blocking order will face legal challenges to cross-state commerce and disenfranchisement in the United States, according to which the US government cannot declare an entity guilty of a crime without trial proceedings, according to the Wall Street Journal on April 26.
Recently, the call to ban TikTok in the United States has been "wave after wave", at the federal and state levels at the same time.
On March 7, Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Senator John Thune, a bill called the Limit the Emergence of Threats to Information and Communications Technology Security, or RESTRICT Act, would ban Tiktok, with the potential for fines of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison.
In early April, in Florida, where Republican Gov. DeSantis is in charge, a number of local public universities were required to block Chinese social software, including TikTok, on campus networks and public devices, citing so-called "data security."
The Chinese side has repeatedly stated that the United States has repeatedly engaged in presumption of guilt and unreasonable suppression of relevant enterprises without any evidence to prove that TikTok threatens US national security. Professional problems should be solved in a professional way, suppressing others, not making themselves stronger. The US side should earnestly respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop unjustifiably suppressing enterprises of other countries, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for enterprises from all countries to invest and operate in the United States.
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