Washington, Apr 15 (EFE).- The Montana state parliament (USA) approved this Friday a bill aimed at banning the TikTok application, owned by the Chinese ByteDance, on the mobile devices of all its inhabitants.
Montana could become the first US state to ban TikTok entirely if Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, signs off on the initiative, which would make it into law and take effect.
A spokesman for the governor said Friday that he would “carefully consider” the proposal, but gave no indication whether Gianforte would sign it into law.
Montana’s ban is the toughest yet passed by a state legislature and goes beyond a ban the federal government and half of the 50 US states, including Montana, have put in place to prevent public officials from have TikTok on their cell phones.
Various sectors of the United States, including the FBI, members of Congress and state authorities, have expressed concern about the possibility that TikTok could be used by Beijing for espionage work, since the application is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
China has security laws that could force tech companies to share data with its intelligence services, but TikTok and other companies argue those concerns are nonsense and have implemented various measures to protect their users’ data.
As reported in the US media in March, the Joe Biden government has threatened ByteDance, owner of TikTok, to ban the social network throughout the United States if it does not sell the shares they have in the popular application.
Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) tried to impose a veto on TikTok, but after a long legal battle it did not materialize.
TikTok has about 100 million users in the United States and has become one of the most popular social networks in the world in a short time, especially among teenagers.
