Assaf Sagi, CEO of TikTok Israel, talks about the innovations in the app (Walla!Money)
Montana became the first U.S. state to ban China's TikTok app after the governor signed legislation banning mobile app stores from offering it.
The move is one of the most dramatic in a series of measures being taken in the United States against TikTok, which is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance. TikTok is suspected of having ties to China, and the concern is that it could pose a national security threat to the United States.
TikTok app (Photo: Reuters)
Chinese spy balloon over Montana (Photo: Reuters)
The federal government and more than half of the states have banned the app on government devices, and the Biden administration has even threatened a national boycott unless TikTok's parent company sells its shares. ByteDance denies sharing information with the Chinese government and said the company would not do so even if asked.
TikTok released a statement saying Montana law "violates the First Amendment rights of the people of the state by illegally banning TikTok" and that the company plans to "protect the rights of its users inside and outside Montana."
Montana law goes into effect Jan. 1 and bans TikTok downloads in the state. Anyone who does so — an app store or TikTok — will be fined ten thousand dollars a day for every time the "option is offered to the user" to access the platform or download the app. Fines will not apply to users.
Montana has also banned all social networking apps that collect and provide personal information or data to foreign advertisers or governments, including China's WeChat and Telegram, which was founded in Russia.
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