The IT Nerd

Well, things are about to get interesting. Montana has become the first state to ban Chinese owned social media app TikTok. It needs the governors signature. But if he does sign it into law, it will mean this on the surface:

The bill, SB 419, makes it illegal for app stores to give users the option to download the app and also illegal for the company to operate within the state.

The bill does not, however, make it illegal for people who already have TikTok to use the app. A previous version of the bill sought to force internet providers to block TikTok, but that language was later removed. 

Then there’s this part:

The measure would prohibit downloads of TikTok in the state and would fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — $10,000 per day for each time someone “is offered the ability” to access or download the app. There would not be penalties for users.

The ban would not take effect until January 2024 and would become void if Congress passes a national measure or if TikTok severs its connections with China.

So if you don’t forcibly remove TikTok from people’s phones, and you’re only going to go after Apple and Google presumably with fines if they allow the download of TikTok, how is this a ban precisely? I assume that it is easy enough for Google and Apple to keep people from Montana from downloading TikTok. But one has to assume that VPN’s would quickly solve that problem. And side loading the app on the Android side of the fence would be another way to get past this “ban”. The bottom line is that this law is pretty ineffective and it’s symbolic at best. This illustrates the fact that banning TikTok is going to be tricky. Assuming if it’s even possible.

This entry was posted on April 15, 2023 at 8:33 am and is filed under Commentary with tags TikTok. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.